BATTLE FOR THE GRID Season One Pass Release Date Rumor and Why the Game Is Probably Dead
I have really enjoyed Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid, and I’m waiting to see what nWay and Hasbro have planned for the Season One content. If reports are true, that may be happening at the end of June (June 25, 27, or 29 are the most likely candidates), and that may not be a good thing. Kwing breaks down some of the reasons why this isn’t great, namely the fact that several other more well-known and renowned fighting games are releasing new content around that same time. That would make it easy for Battle for the Grid to be ignored. He then suggests putting the DLC off until either Power Morphicon or the return of Beast Rangers to help get the game and franchise back into everyone’s minds. This is smart. Another smart suggestion is to get trailers and content to the press and influencers so that we can be building the hype for the content.
This leads me to another subject, the life of the game. I haven’t been able to play the game in a while because life has been crazy. However, Kwing and several people in the comments have commented about how hard it is to matchmake with anyone these days. Apparently, very few people are still playing Battle for the Grid, and that’s extremely sad because the game is less than three months old. I think there are several possible reasons for this, and I hope they can be fixed. Some of them already have been.
The thing that I think killed the game more than anything is how incomplete the game was at launch and how it’s still missing at least one key feature. In my review of the game, I mention that there’s no voice work, no Story Mode, a very small roster, and there’s no way to play with your friends. All but one of these have been addressed, but it took about a month. The one that hasn’t been addressed is the ability to play with your friends, and that’s a big deal for a lot of fans. While the game’s price was great, an incomplete game at launch leaves a bad taste in one’s mouth that turns people off. Granted, the roster only added three characters for a total of 12, it is a lot better than the 9 we had before in a 3v3 fighting game.
Here are some other factors I think led to its current state. The lack of representation across series. Battle for the Grid is supposed to celebrate 25 years of Power Rangers, and the small roster of 12 fighters only features characters from 6 different eras (counting the comic characters as part of Mighty Morphin). Also, their engagement with the community has gone downhill. It sounds like a lot of people have been taken off the project or possibly are no longer with nWay anymore, which means no info is getting out and the Twitter account has simply been posting trailers for characters that were released over a month ago. Finally, the fact that it’s not on PC yet is also keeping people off the game. The good news is that the game will be part of Google Stadia which will hopefully inject new life into the game, but it won’t be enough.
I think Hasbro and nWay could save the game like Kwing suggests. However, they have to work with people like the press and content creators. They need to build up the hype for their game, they have to be conscious of when their competitors are releasing things so they can schedule their releases for different times, and they have to listen to what the players want. I don’t have any hope that this game will actually be revived, and I’m sure that the heads of nWay and Hasbro have already written this game off and are simply putting out the first season because they had people pre-order it.
What would it take for you to play Battle for the Grid? Battle for the Grid is available now on Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One.