Battleborn, Gearbox's new "triple-A hero-shooter," promises FPS gunplay and MOBA-like strategy

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Gearbox Software's next big thing is Battleborn, an "ambitious fusion of genres" that combines the action of multiplayer first-person shooters with the co-operative combat elements more commonly seen in MOBAs. It sounds vaguely reminiscent of the Borderlands games but publisher 2K Games says we've never played anything like it before.

For those unclear as to what exactly "hobby grade" means, GameInformer has a somewhat more prosaic take on the game, which features as its August cover story. "Battleborn takes the minion smashing and fast leveling often associated with MOBAs and injects it into an intergalactic first-person battle arena," the cover reveal says. "The game's dramatic story assembles a universe's worth of disparate heroes, from an immortal samurai to a minigun-wielding giant, all battling over the last star in the cosmos."

The action will focus on the Battleborn heroes, who will go head-to-head across various sorts of landscapes while "robotic NPC minions" battle in the background. Each match, players will progress through up to 20 experience levels, unlocking abilities that enable different styles of play as they go. It all sounds very MOBA-like, and in fact Game Informer compares the five-on-five "Incursion" mode to games like League of Legends and Dota 2 .

But 2K clarified with VentureBeat that Battleborn is not actually a MOBA. "As the term 'hero-shooter' implies, Battleborn is first and foremost a first-person shooter,” a rep said, adding that "it's heavily inspired by lots of genres," including RPGs, RTSes and fighting games.

That doesn't exactly pin it down, does it? Nor does the announcement trailer , which is very pretty but not terribly informative. There's currently nothing more of note to be found at Battleborn.com , so all we can really say right now is that hopefully it will be more Borderlands , and less Colonial Marines . Battleborn is currently slated to launch sometime prior to the end of Take-Two's 2016 fiscal year, which wraps up at the end of March 2016.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.