Written by Game Rant guest contributor Randy Frank.
Gearbox seems to be console happy and all too glad to spread the love of the upcoming mega RPG shooter, Borderlands 2. As we previously reported, the Texas-based developer is considering taking the game on the road with a PS Vita version. Now we learn that they’d also like to bring gamers a Wii U version if they had their druthers.
Brian Martel, co-founder of Gearbox Software, spoke to Dealspwn of his excitement for the Nintendo Wii U and its potential since their upcoming Aliens: Colonial Marines is one of the key third-party launch window titles for the console. Will Borderlands 2 come to the Wii U as well?
“We really like the Wii U, I think it’s a really cool platform. I like what they’re doing – obviously with the touchscreen – and it will be interesting to see what Microsoft do with their approach to that idea. It’s one of those problems of the Wii: the only people who have ever made a lot of money on the Wii is Nintendo.
So we’re really excited to bring Aliens: Colonial Marines to it. And we’re going to do a wait and see approach, our publisher 2K is going to see whether they’re going to go with that. But if Borderlands 2 was on the Wii U, the thing I would be most excited about is inventory management: it would be amazing on that, it would just be fantastic. And I think the artwork would look really good, with the way they can deal with the resolutions and textures, I think it’s a really good console.”
We have to agree about the in-game inventory management. Just imagine your eleventy million guns on the Wii U tablet for your perusal. While in a perfect world every awesome game would have an equally awesome release on every platform, the real world just gives us a maybe sometimes. Aliens: Colonial Marines will serve as a useful test to see if non-Nintendo, third-party titles can succeed on the platform.
In other Borderlands 2 news, new information about game mechanics was revealed this week and this one’s a doozy. Player character stats are going to be linked to your online profile and get this, progression is infinite. That’s right folks, as in there’s no limit in leveling up characters. It sounds a little scary, right? How many games do you know that will let you level up ad infinitum? Not many, we’d guess. But the head of Gearbox, Randy Pitchford, is behind it. What’s it called? “Badass.”
In speaking with Eurogamer, Pitchford briefly chatted about the Badass progression system, comparing it to the competition.
“I don’t know of any examples. There are a couple of games that have done profile levelling. Even Call of Duty multiplayer, your growth is profile related, not character related, but they don’t have character choices. You’re not growing characters… And I haven’t seen one that’s comfortable with infini-growth. Everything puts a cap onto it.”
The idea behind this is one that we can all get behind: Replayability (for years) -A huge measure of many games and certainly a buying decision factor. Gearbox analyzed the long-term play of dedicated Borderlands 1 players to come up with a way to keep players feeling rewarded and attempting to evolve their character(s) for years after launch. At the same time, this will keep the fanbase interested for larger amounts of DLC content.
There’s been a lot of buzz around the sophomore title to one of Gearbox’s most popular games and our experience with it at E3 was more than good enough to justify its place on our list of most anticipated games of 2012, while also leaving us wanting more. Check out the latest Borderlands 2 trailer to see why.
Borderlands 2 will be available on September 18, 2012 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.
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gearbox is one of the best studios in the business period. these guys know how to cater for fans, new comers and old school gamers that just want to have fun. my dream would be to work with pitchford and his team of enthusiastic and ethical group of bad a**es
:O jwalka is actually saying something positive? Quick, someone check the temperature of Hell!
i complement when necessary
these guys are one of very few studios out there currently that care about what they make and the people they make them for, way ahead of jokes like bethesda and rockstar who only care about money (at least now).
Yeah Gearbox is a great group. The two things that come to mind are the claptrap proposal video and eulogy video they animated and voiced for fans who loved Borderlands. That is just plain awesome. It’s great to see a big name studio truly care about the individual fan rather than see us as group of dollar signs.
xD well played, Matt
I think all games should have an infinite progression system. I don’t see the need for level caps. That takes away replayability. The only situation in which “infini-growth” wouldn’t work is a competitive multiplayer progression system in which you gain perks every time you level up, as this would mean that you could keep leveling up and getting all the perks, thus being far more powerful than everybody else. But for single-player and co-op, an infinite progression system definitely works, and should always be implented IMO.
If this drops on the WiiU that’ll be where I’m playing it.
Didn’t D&D heros have an infinite level progression system? I haven’t played that in years so really can’t remember.
Man, I am kinda disappointed.I plan on getting a Wii U but didn’t really plan on buying Aliens Colonial Marines but had my eyes set on Assassin’s Creed 3,Darksiders 2, and Tekken Tag Tournament 2.If Borderlands 2 was on there I would definitely buy though.I have the first one on ps3 and it is great.Sucks that they are basing putting on there by how good some other game may sell which may or may not be any good.I don’t plan on buying Aliens on ps3 either.Hopefully a lot of people will buy it so that we can get Borderlands 2 on the Wii U.