10 Failed Live Service Video Games With Shockingly Short Lifespans

7. Battleborn (2016-2021)

Battleborn, or not Overwatch if you prefer, was a fairly solid game that came out at the worst possible time. Developed by Gearbox Software, the MOBA had plenty of promising elements at launch. As a hero shooter it had a variety of interesting heroes, an engaging multiplayer format, and that Borderlands flavour thanks to its developer, that had already proven popular with gamers.

Unfortunately, the game just couldn’t compete with Blizzard’s Overwatch, another hero shooter that released in the same window and took the industry by storm.

With a little love and a lot of tweaking and updates it’s possible that Battleborn could have been refined into something great but with players migrating across to Overwatch in droves, there was very little to be done to keep the game alive. Within two months of its launch player numbers had fallen to below 1000 and frequent complaints over the game’s overly complex systems and poor matchmaking signalled the beginning of the end. The game transitioned to free-to-play in 2017, just over a year after its launch but it would spend the next couple of years dying a slow death regardless.

The game was removed from sale in 2019, in-game purchases were halted in 2020 and servers were shut down completely by 2021.