Borderlands 2 loses Arena PvP mode

Borderlands 2 will not see a return of the game’s Arena Mode. Instead, all of Borderlands 2 will be PvE this time around, and focused on the cooperative experience. Gearbox Software’s Steve Gibson recently explained the drop of the mode in an interview with Gamerzines.

“It was hardly used,” Gibson explained. “So what we invested in instead was the co-op stuff. The Badass Ranking System is kind of a measure stick which says, ‘Look how awesome I’m doing in this world.’ So what we’ve invested in rather than Arena stuff is drop-in drop-out split-screen co-op, and being able to re-adjust your questline a little bit to match up with other players.”

Gibson is talking specifically about the Arena Mode of the game. In our hands on preview of Borderlands 2 at E3 2012, we did see that Dueling was still an option in game. So there is still that PvP element, albeit on a much smaller scale than before.