Around the year 2016, many exciting projects emerged in the field of hero shooters. However, the success of Overwatch and the subsequent hype surrounding battle royale games like PUBG or Fortnite: Battle Royale led many of these games to meet an early demise. With Gigantic, one of the most beautiful titles is set to return, and it’s coming to Steam, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X and One. The release is scheduled for April 9.
What was the situation back then?
- For a while, almost every studio was developing an online shooter focused on special characters, just like Overwatch did with its iconic heroes. These games were called hero shooters.
- However, none of these games enjoyed significant success upon their release. Many of these games did find fans who genuinely liked them, but commercial success was elusive.
- And so, back then, news circulated about online shooters that were stylish, but died out like Battleborn, Paragon, Lawbreaker, or the very pretty Gigantic.
Gigantic offered huge monsters and stylish heroes
What was Gigantic again? Gigantic was released in July 2017 for PC and Xbox.
It had 20 playable heroes: About “The Margrave,” a black knight with a demonic fist, or Charnok, a dragon mage who threw fireballs.
The central element of the game was that each team had a gigantic “Guardian” around which the game revolved. You could kill opponents or capture key points on the map.
Why was the game not a success? Gigantic never managed to escape the “That looks good, I need to try that” or “What game was that again?” status. It was always overshadowed by Overwatch during development, and when it was finally released, the huge hype around Fortnite erupted shortly after.
Like Paladins, Gigantic was also accused of being a clone of Overwatch. Even fairly decent reviews (76% on Metacritic) could not change that.
Only half a year after the release, on January 31, 2018, the developers announced that they would cease the development of Gigantic.
Game returns in April 2024 for PC and consoles
This is the announcement: 6 years after the end, Gigantic is coming back.
The “Gigantic: Rampage Edition” brings back the original game along with two new heroes, two new maps, and a faster mode.
However, the game will not be free-to-play; it will cost $20 (likely then €20 for us) and will not include any microtransactions. Everything will be earnable through gameplay.
The game is set to release on April 9, for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox One. It will also be available on Steam and in the Epic Games Store.
How to sign up for the Gigantic beta
On February 22 and 23, a closed beta will start – you can register for the beta on Steam here.
Everything is a bit strange
This is what’s behind it: This has a strange aftertaste. Because Gigantic is one of the least successful games one can remember.
Gearbox, who is now releasing Gigantic, actually has nothing to do with it. Their hero shooter that went down was Battle Born.
The rights to Gigantic were held by Perfect World.
But the struggling group “Embracer Group” has bought both Gearbox and Perfect World and apparently decided that Gearbox will release a new Gigantic.
It seems somewhat forced, as if they are trying to extract something from a complicated situation.
The Embracer Group is the group that has miscalculated terribly: for years they have acquired all sorts of video game companies, but a billion-dollar deal fell through, and now they are closing down companies left and right and creating horror stories about lost jobs.
The most important German gaming studio for role-playing games is likely closing down
