It's intriguing to think that the Borderlands Movie flopped...and all the while Borderlands 3 had been a major success with over 18 million sales over the last almost 5 years!
Three personal opinions about why I think it failed from a product manager standpoint:
1) The fact that it was a movie - Borderlands is way more complex than one may think and I think that movies try to cram too much. As a series, it would have done far better than simply settling for being just a movie.
2) Missed both ends of the audience - Borderlands disappointed true fans and those that do not understand Borderlands at all. There was not enough time to develop the characters - let alone unravel the complexities of each of them, along with an all too generic plot. This is doomed to fail, especially for those who have no clue what Borderlands is!
3) Focused too much on monetization - This stems a bit from number two and in doing so, marketing failed for the game and under-represented how great the game series is! I mean, this is one of the top RPG/FPS/Looter games with a nice plot that again was underrepresented in the movie
If you prioritize the customer and their needs, you are far less likely to run into these snags. You'd have thought that they would have followed in the footsteps of Fallout and The Last of Us because damn could this make for a really good tv series! In fact, I hope they attempt to redo this at a later time and TRY a TV series because it truly would resonate far more with a slower development of again...THE COMPLEX CHARACTERS that are full of interesting stories, histories, and lore.
Anyhow, I will get off of my soapbox...yes the movie was a flop, yet there can be lessons taken away from this experience going forward. Most importantly and most gratefully, it doesn't appear to have diminished the franchise a whole lot. I would also encourage those who haven't played to consider giving this game a go, and especially in preparation for number 4 that is coming out in 2025!
Movie cover for a nice giggle! All credit reserved for Lionsgate: https://borderlands.movie/
Cheers and Happy Weekend All,
Stephen Lenz
#borderlands #videogames #lessons #failure #marketing #marketinggonewrong
Experienced Professional in Television
6moI age yet you don't, got it, congrats to you on all your success