Gearbox talks Borderlands 2 – Video Games Update
Steve Gibson, Gearbox’s VP of Marketing, revealed many features of Borderlands 2 including the single player campaign length in an interview with GamerZines.
Gearbox software created the first Borderlands which was subsequently published in 2009 for the Playstation 3, PC and Xbox 360 by 2K Games. The game was first revealed in 2007 as a gritty realistic Alien shooter but during the course of development, the
developers changed the game’s theme from gritty to slapstick dark comedy and revamped the graphics with a cell-shaded comic book like feel.
The main draw of the game was the simultaneous four player co-op available for the single player campaign and the role playing game elements such as random weapon and item drops. Randy Pitchford, the CEO of Gearbox, commented on Borderlands having ‘17 million’
different guns in the game.
Gamers loved Borderlands and it sold well across all three platforms and because of the positive reception, Gearbox went on to release three additional downloadable expansion packs for the game.
The Game of the Year (GOTY) version which had all the DLC already included was also released in 2010. Sales estimates suggest that the game has sold over 4.5 million units since launch and these numbers don’t even include the digital download versions.
Gibson claims that Gearbox was taking notes and fan feedback about the first game has greatly influenced the second one. He stated that ‘some guide guys’ just recently completed a play-through of the game and they clocked the total playtime to 58 hours and
just with one character class. Now that is one long single player campaign when compared to other recent modern shooters like Call of Duty or Battlefield where the single player rarely exceeds six hours.
“Yeah we look at it as a hobby, and that isn’t even counting the new Badass Points system and how that’ll affect every character you do. We want it to feel like you get more for your money, we’re happy for people to pay their money once and feel that they
get ongoing value,” said Gibson describing the vast and complex character upgrade system found in game which will keep players entertained for months to come.
The game is coming out on September 18, 2012 for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and the PC. No Wii-U version has been announced so far.
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