What is Borderlands EchoVision Live?

This series follows eight all-new characters marooned in Eden-6, a planet from Borderlands 3, as they try to “follow in the footsteps of Vault Hunters and bask in their glory.” Those who tune in will be able to determine what these character do and how they evolve. Genvid CEO Jacob Navok released a statement that explained more about the premise.

“Every decision you make, every moment you participate matters.” said Navok. “This is your chance to make a mark, to leave a legacy in this world. Decisions don’t have a reset button, and are shared by all participants. Borderlands EchoVision Live is another major franchise coming exclusively to the Genvid global platform.”

Chief creative officer at Genvid Stephan Bugaj also detailed what made the Borderlands world good to mine for this type of experience.

“We love the Borderlands universe because the fanbase has fully embraced its focus on diverse characters, heartfelt storytelling, and irreverent humor, traits that fit our communal storytelling format perfectly,” said Bugaj. “Borderlands EchoVision Live is not only a brand new story and cast set in the Borderlands universe, but an exciting new type of experience for the franchise in which the entire audience collaborates and competes to drive narrative outcomes.”

Genvid noted that Silent Hill was going live sometime in 2023, but details surrounding Borderlands EchoVision Live’s release date will come in the future. The studio also announced at Comic-Con that it is making an interactive series based on DC Comics heroes called DC Heroes United.

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Who is in the Borderlands movie?

Deadline reported this release date, but didn’t reveal any additional details that hadn’t already been out there. The film’s Twitter account also confirmed the Borderlands movie release date shortly after.

It stars Cate Blanchett as Lilith, Kevin Hart as Roland, Jack Black as Claptrap, Jamie Lee Curtis as Dr. Patricia Tannis, Ariana Greenblatt as Tiny Tina, Florian Munteanu as Krieg, Janina Gavankar as Commander Knoxx, and Gina Gershon as Mad Moxxi, just to name a few. It follows Lilith as she returns to Pandora to find her daughter.

The movie has been shuffling around Hollywood since 2015 when it was officially announced. It changed hands more than a few times before The Last of Us director and writer Craig Mazin wrote the screenplay, which is when director Eli Roth was attached in February 2020. It was filmed in early 2021, but Deadpool director Tim Miller shot some reshoots in January 2023. Nothing has been shown of the Borderlands movie so far, except for a silhouetted picture of the cast.

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The Borderlands Compilation: Pandora’s Box looks to be a bundle

As spotted by Gematsu, The Borderlands Compilation: Pandora’s Box showed up on South Africa’s Film and Publication Board, which published its classified films and games for April. While there are a few known games on there like Immortals of Aveum, Crash Team Rumble, and Redfall, there’s also the aforementioned Borderlands compilation. No other details are listed, other than it is a console and PC title.

Neither Gearbox Software nor 2K have revealed what exactly this could be, but it’s clearly some sort of big bundle. It’s possible that it includes all four traditional Borderlands games: Borderlands, Borderlands 2, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, and Borderlands 3.

The previous Borderlands compilation, Borderlands: The Handsome Collection, only had the first three titles, so this would be an opportunity to get the four shooters in one place. It’s unclear if it will also have the fantasy spin-off Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands or Tales from the Borderlands and New Tales from the Borderlands, the two narrative adventure titles developed by Telltale Games and Gearbox Software, respectively.

Some Borderlands games are also exiting PlayStation Plus. The Handsome Collection just left Extra on July 18, and Borderlands 3 is one of the games leaving on August 15. It seems natural to take these games off a subscription service if they’re going to be resold in the near future. The Borderlands movie is also scheduled for sometime in 2024, so it would make sense to have something a little newer on physical or digital storefronts somewhere around that time.

There’s already a native PS5 upgrade for Borderlands 3, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, and New Tales from the Borderlands, and the PS4 port of The Handsome Collection runs at a 4K at 60 frames per second on PS5. 2014’s Tales from the Borderlands is the only potential Borderlands game that could see some sort of upgrade, granted that this unannounced bundle is anything more than a simple repackaging of existing ports.

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Gearbox’s expansion into Asia is important for “long-term growth”

As noted in a press release, this news marks Gearbox’s first expansion into Asia, which the company believes is “an important market in the company’s long-term growth strategy.” Created in 2008, Eidos Shanghai has previously worked on other triple-A games from Square Enix, such as Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.

So their expertise certainly looks like it will be useful for the next game in the Borderlands (or Tiny Tina’s) franchise or if the developer chooses to expand its reach into Asian markets. Or perhaps, a mobile Borderlands game is in the works?

Gigi Ning, the general manager for Eidos Shanghai, will continue to serve in the role, but report to Gearbox Publishing (previously Perfect World Entertainment) based in San Francisco.

Earlier in November, Embracer Group confirmed that Square Enix Montreal, which was rebranded to Onoma just three weeks ago, had been closed down. It also acquired eight other studios including Middle-earth Enterprises back in August.

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When will the cross-platform update arrive on PS5 and PS4?

Borderlands 3 will get full cross-play on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Google Stadia, and PC later this spring. The update will come months after cross-platform play was introduced for Xbox and PC in June 2021. Playstation consoles were supposed to get the update at the same time, but Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford later revealed they were asked to remove the feature from PlayStation consoles.

Neither Sony nor 2K Games commented further on the potential issue, but documents revealed during the Epic vs. Apple lawsuit revealed Sony had some interesting ideas to prevent developers from including cross-platform play in their games. Sony is apparently entitled to compensation from a developer or publisher if a game’s PS4 player-base drops too low in proportion to the revenue it generates in a month. This required developers to submit data so Sony could calculate their royalty payments, something likely to be off-putting for many.

In the meantime, Borderlands 3 players have managed to complete 30,000 trials to unlock the Guardian Head reward. The following SHIFT code will unlock the reward: CSW33-HBBJB-R65XH-XJTJ3-CT963. There’s also a code active for a special Diamond Key that can be redeemed until 8 am PT on May 1: WHKTJ-WF5SC-F6RBC-HJB33-3R5HB.

In other news, the new Playstation Plus tiers are launching earlier than anticipated in some regions. More countries will also be getting cloud streaming so they can make use of PlayStation Plus Premium. Elsewhere, Ubisoft may be looking at suitors for a buyout proposal after its share value plummeted in recent months.

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What AAA games are in development at Embracer?

While 216 games are in development, only 56 of them have been announced. This means many of the AAA games are yet to be announced too, and they might not necessarily be coming to PlayStation either. Of those that we know about, Deep Silver has Saints Row arriving on August 23. They are also still at work on Dead Island 2, and if the conference call is anything to go by, there’s a chance we may see this game before the end of fiscal year 2023 (before the end of March 2023).

Prime Matter has Payday 3 in development, although this is likely still several years away. Saber Interactive is working on seven AAA games, including Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 due later this year. Aspyr Media has Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic – Remake, but this is also likely several years away. Finally, Gearbox has ten AAA games in progress, including Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands due to appear on March 25.

There are plenty of other Embracer titles due to appear soon. March will also bring Elex II, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, Shadow Warrior 3, and Monster Energy Supercross 5. Road 96 will follow in April while Evil Dead: The Game will appear in May. Spellforce III Reforced was delayed until June. During the conference call, Milestone CEO Luisa Bixio also confirmed the company has acquired the Superbike World Championship license and the first SBK game will be released in July.

Embracer also recorded a few successes from their recent and most popular titles. Metro Exodus recently reached 6 million sales, while Hot Wheels Unleashed has reached 1 million sales and is Milestone’s most successful game yet. Over the last quarter, the Borderlands franchise has sold over 2 million copies while Borderlands 3 passed 15 million lifetime sales. Deep Rock Galactic doubled its player count after it was downloaded more than 9 million times on PlayStation Plus. The bad news was that Chorus failed to meet management expectations despite positive attention from fans and critics.

In other news, Ubisoft has confirmed Skull & Bones is now a game that puts multiplayer first. Elsewhere, ANNO: Mutationem is due to be released next month.

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Why are Subscribers Upset at the February 2022 PS Plus Games?

A popular Reddit post pointed out that with Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep, Sony is essentially giving the same game twice in a relatively short period of time. In June 2019, one of the PS Plus games was Borderlands: The Handsome Collection. This includes Borderlands 2, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, and all the DLC for both. Many subscribers are voicing their frustration that Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep is just a repack of a Borderlands 2 DLC campaign that Sony already included in PS Plus two years ago.

Some of those commenting are upset because Sony chose Tina Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep for this month to advertise for the upcoming Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands instead of a “better” game. Of course, we’ll never know for sure if that’s the case or not, but we have to agree this selection is leaning towards the meager side.

There have been some good-to-great PS Plus months over the past year, especially since Sony has started giving three games per month, one PS5 and two PS4. However, it’s still not up to par with what it used to be. Between July 2014 and February 2019, PS Plus subscribers got two PS4, two PS3, and two Vita games almost every month when Sony moved away from weekly releases. That gave players roughly 72 games a year, which has been halved. Of course, not every month was a winner, but six games a month meant there was a higher chance of there being something that caught your eye.

Do you feel like PS Plus is still a good deal? Let us know what you think below.

In other news, Mortal Kombat 12 gets teased, and Star Wars 1313 gameplay footage was leaked.

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Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep was originally released as DLC for Borderlands 2 back in 2013. The expansion featured the titular Tiny Tina as she became dungeon master in a Dungeons & Dragons-esque game called Bunkers and Badasses. The adventurers are played by Vault Hunters Brick, Mordecai and Lilith but it wasn’t just as simple as making your way throughcastles, dungeons, and magic forests, because Tiny Tina would change the attributes of bosses, switch up location details, and even rename characters as she went along.

As seen in the trailer, Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep: A Wonderlands One-Shot Adventure comes with all of the content of the DLC release as well as new loot chests and cosmetics, like Badass Heads. The standalone release is intended to give new players an idea of what to expect when Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is released in March 2022. Executive Producer Randy Pitchford said of the standalone release:

Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon’s Keep is one of the most important pieces of content Gearbox has ever imagined. With the original Dragon’s Keep, not only did we introduce an entirely new genre into the critically acclaimed Borderlands series, we created and developed some of Gearbox’s most impressive gameplay and storytelling. I am thrilled for Tiny Tina’s original adventure to be readily available for a new generation of players, and also for long-time fans to come back to where the story started and once-again experience the magic that inspired Wonderlands.

Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep: A Wonderlands One-Shot Adventure is available for purchase right now and will cost $9.99 on PS4, Xbox One and Steam. Those who have an Epic Games account can get the game for free until November 16, after which it will cost $9.99 there too.

[Source: Take-Two Interactive]

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Despite a lack of new games or even major recent updates for Grand Theft Auto Online, the Grand Theft Auto franchise has managed to accumulate more than 355 million sales between its titles. That’s a 5 million increase since August 2021 and that is almost entirely down to Grand Theft Auto V, which has now reached a total of over 155 million sales alone. In fact, GTA V is the fastest “entertainment release” to ever reach $1 billion in retail sales. Since the release of the Los Santos update in GTA Online, recurrent spending on microtransactions has increased by 33%, making the game one of the top two contributors to recurrent spending for Take-Two Interactive.

Rockstar’s other major franchise of the moment, Red Dead Redemption, has sold nearly 62 million units. The most recent game in the series, Red Dead Redemption 2, sold another 1 million copies during the last three months to reach a total of more than 39 million sales. It is the second best-selling title in the US based on dollar sales. Moving away from Rockstar, Gearbox continues to do well with the Borderlands franchise. Thanks solely to Borderlands 3, the franchise sold another 1 million units through the past three months to reach nearly 72 million sales. Borderlands 3 has now sold around 14 million units and is still 2K’s fastest selling title.

You may recall I said GTA Online was one of the top two contributors to recurrent spending for Take-Two Interactive. Well, the other is the NBA 2K franchise, which has now reached a total of more than 118 million sales. NBA 2K22 has sold more than 5 million units and saw more players in its first month than any prior release in the franchise. The game had a 4% increase in the number of people spending on microtransactions and a 58% increase in new players spending money on microtransactions.

Finally, PGA Tour 2K21 has sold more than 2.5 million units. That’s the good news. The bad news is there’s still absolutely nothing about a new game in the franchise with the financial report making it clear there won’t be a PGA Tour 2K22 game during the current fiscal year. Meanwhile, EA’s rival EA Sports PGA Tour has also been delayed and currently doesn’t have a new release window as the team will be “providing more information on our launch plans in the coming months.”

pic.twitter.com/RjIEpQZBSL

— EA SPORTS PGA TOUR (@EASPORTSPGATOUR) November 3, 2021

Despite the delay of Marvel’s Midnight Suns, Take-Two Interactive’s release slate still looks incredibly healthy for the rest of the financial year. Later this month there will be Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition as well as a limited physical release of Borderlands 3 on PlayStation 5. At some point between January and the end of March 2022, OlliOlli World will be released, while March is the month we will also see WWE 2K22, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, a standalone version of GTA Online, and the PS5 version of Grand Theft Auto V.

[Source: Take-Two Games, Take-Two Games via Seeking Alpha]

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Typhon DeLeon is a Borderlands 3 NPC that calls himself the first Vault Hunter after he set off for better things than following his family into turd farming. Many fans of the game have compared the character to DeVito previously but their similarities had never been confirmed before today. Apparently a chance meeting between Pitchford and DeVito resulted in the latter stating his wish to voice a character in one of Gearbox’s games.

While the team were creating the character, they wanted someone who was “infamous and imagined to be the perfect super hero in stature and appearance.” Those who have played the game will realize DeLeon is not even remotely like this, mainly because Pitchford instead wanted “half-myth and half reality,” one that turned out to be “unassuming, short, and rough around the edges.” As the character was developed further, he was formed with DeVito in mind as the actor.

When it came to casting the character, discussions began with DeVito but “Danny’s peeps kept ghosting” them. Another reason for giving up on the idea was that the character’s table reader, Motion Graphics Designer Mike Cosner, was “so great at the role” when the team were trying out the character’s lines and had “nailed” the temporary voiceover recordings. As such, Cosner ended up cast as the character’s official voice actor.

You can read Pitchford’s full Twitter thread below:

I got introduced to Danny DeVito during my time there and we went back to his trailer and were talking shop by his trailer between shots. We talked about entertainment and videogames and he said he would love to do a character in one of our games.

— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) September 13, 2021

DeLeon isn’t one of the characters set to make an appearance in the Borderlands movie, so we’re not going to see DeVito in the world of Pandora just yet. The movie will release at some point next year.

[Source: Twitter]

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