Borderlands is out this week and the first reviews are in, after many years of development and a solid few months of hype. Despite the media and gamer buzz, however, videogame analyst Michael Pachter believes that Gearbox Software’s FPS RPG has been “sent to die” and is going to be decimated by both Modern Warfare 2 and Dragon Age: Origins.
“Sent to die. I think Borderlands is the definition of a game that should have had it’s own window and not be up against all this stuff,” explains the silver-tongued fox. “It’s absolutely the same audience. I don’t think it’s as much an RPG as they would like us to believe. If it’s an RPG, Dragon Age is going to kick its butt; and if it’s a shooter, Call of Duty or something else is going to kick its butt.”
Ouch. Very harsh words from the industry’s resident soothsayer, but do you agree? And does having one game sell better than another really take away from its success? I personally just hope this game does well. I think Gearbox is a solid developer full of good ideas and Borderlands has been on my “DO WANT” list for over three years. It’d be a real shame if Pacther’s vision comes to pass.
Besides which, Borderlands has a good few weeks before the big names hit. Let’s give it a chance.
[Via Wearetheinternetz, a site I forgot to source in the story. They could have informed me this properly, but chose instead to passive-aggressively Tweet about it until I worked out what the problem is. I hope this makes them feel better.]
