Battleborn vs SMITE

League of Legends. Overwatch. These two games are not popular, they are gaming culture JUGGERNAUTS. Millions of cosplays, fanarts, fanfics made of both games, it is almost guaranteed that neither game is going to die anytime soon. On the other side of the spectrum, you have the laughing stock that is Battleborn, a game that MAYBE could have been great but got quickly HUMILIATED by Overwatch, to the point that its peak number of players is barely a tenth the average number of Overwatch players. And between those two extremes is SMITE, a mildly successful but otherwise irrelevant MOBA. What's the difference?

First off, we need to recognize the tragedy that is Battleborn. It's not enough that it got released on the same year as Overwatch, nor is it enough that Overwatch's release pretty much killed whatever playerbase the former game could have had. The moment Overwatch got announced? That's when nearly all hype for Battleborn DIED. See, here's the problem: Battleborn is made by Gearbox, a company that has made the Borderlands series, which itself is beloved by gamers and cosplayers alike. Overwatch was made by BLIZZARD, the LEGENDARY creators behind World of Warcraft, IE, THE MMO. World of Warcraft wasn't some small game, it was the ONE game to get mainstream media attention outside anything made by Nintendo. SOUTH PARK did an entire EPISODE based on it; not a gag, an EPISODE.

Overwatch came with pedigree, Battleborn did not. I could just leave it at that and call it a day, but there's more to discuss. See, there's the question of Randy Pitchford's EXTREMELY misguided attempt at keeping Battleborn relevant by discussing how he "discovered" a porn thread of Battleborn on Reddit. Porn. Of his game. Within seconds, that thread got swamped with Overwatch porn, as if personally mocking Pitchford.

It's one thing to try and fight and keep your IP relevant, but to do so by pointing out that porn of it exists? And then telling the world where to find it? Such a move defies ALL LOGIC! And of course, because Pitchford wasn't done humiliating himself, he linked to the thread himself on his Twitter. I shook my head in disbelief when I saw this move, and even today I have trouble believing it happened.

I contrast the utter failure of Battleborn with SMITE, Smite is a MOBA where you control gods from various mythologies. Like League of Legends, SMITE is multiplayer and competitive. Like League, SMITE has a pro-circuit. Unlike League, SMITE is irrelevant to gaming.

Unlike Battleborn, SMITE has a sizeable playerbase that easily reaches the millions, to the point that, two years ago, Hi-Rez celebrated ten million accounts by creating a unique, never-to-be-released again skin and voicepack for the in-game character Hercules, voiced by none other than Kevin Sorbo himself, arguably the most iconic actor to play Hercules in recent memory. How did Hi-Rez achieve this?

By the time SMITE was launched, League of Legends was already incredibly popular, having been on the gaming radar for two years now. Even as the years went by, SMITE could never deter League's popularity, to the point that SMITE had 10 million players to LoL's minimum of 100 Million. So what was the secret to SMITE'S success? Simply put, Hi-Rez continued making SMITE fun, giving it an identity beyond a League clone.

SMITE is a 3D MOBA as opposed to LoL's top-down view. SMITE is in many ways much more difficult than League, as the player must manually move their PC while ALSO engaging in combat. Hi-Rez hit a winning formula: combining the best of MMO's with MOBA's, creating a truly unique game that felt both familiar AND original. I can't say the same thing for Battleborn.

Hi-Rez knew what was going to happen: they were going to get called a rip-off. Their game was going to be accused by more ignorant gamers of ripping off LoL. Did Hi-Rez run from these accusations? Did they froth at the mouth? Nope! They instead merely quietly asked those gamers to try out their game; and said gamers eventually found a good game that was only superficially similar to LoL.

It must be remebered that League of Legends didn't become an overnight sensation; it gradually built itself up from a closed Beta, to an open Beta, to a fully fledged game that anyone can enjoy. It took good word of mouth to get League to where it is today, and a full 2 years for League to become popular at all. It was not until 2012-2013 that League became the JUGGERNAUT we know it as.

Hi-Rez understood this and allowed SMITE to grow similarly. Gearbox didn't understand this fuly; their drive to get Battleborn out turned out to be a humiliating folly. It got so bad, Battleborn's launch was utterly eclipsed by Overwatch releasing the playable Beta the DAY BEFORE! What Gearbox should have done was shelf Battleborn a year, change a few elements so that, when it FINALLY got released, they could market it as an alternative to Overwatch, not just simply a competitor.

Battleborn could have been a great game, but it was killed by Overwatch. I've personally never read a TERRIBLE review of the game, but I've yet to read an unbiased review that can tell me WHY this game is better than Overwatch. As it stands, Battleborn is doomed to be forgotten to the sands of times; with no offline mode, it'll soon be a game no one can ever play again. It's already taking its last breaths anyway.