With gamers still reeling from the news of the cancellation of the Battlefield and Apex Legends mobile games, we’ve also been hit with the news that a new Titanfall game has recently faced the digital chopping block. As Apex Legends still performs so well on PC, this sudden announcement came as a shock to Titanfall purists, but there is light on the horizon. It might be a long shot, but this report signals new a bigger things, at least that’s what we have to hope.
The Titanfall Universe
The first Titanfall was released in March 2014. Regarded by hopeful Xbox fans at the time as the next Halo in terms of popularity, the original was a great title, but it failed to completely match lofty expectations. Titanfall had a great gameplay loop, but it was also a multiplayer dedicated experience, where the single-player was essentially just the same multiplayer maps with a few voice lines thrown in.
Titanfall 2, released in March 2016, was nothing short of a revelation. The sequel streamlined the gameplay of TF1, while also delivering a single-player campaign that many regard as one of the best ever. The problem – EA saw fit to release TF2 right between the launch of Battlefield 1 and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. It went against two of the biggest and most established series in all of gaming. Predictably, sales weren’t amazing. Less predictably, TF2 beats both other titles for user scores at Metacritic. The players loved the game, and they eagerly awaited more.
Instead of a new Titanfall, what players got was a battle royale game set in the Titanfall universe. This new game, Apex Legends, launched unexpectedly, for free, and was greeted with enormous public attention. It was a pivot away from what made the series popular, but it found more success than the original titles ever did. Of course, part of that had to do with EA’s launch timing, but it did mean the setting had proven its legs.
A Bright New Horizon?
We have faith in a new Titanfall game, even following one cancellation, thanks to the similar cancellation of Apex Legends mobile, a game that was already released. According to EA, the shutdown of Apex was due to a lack of quality, and considering the game was making money, that’s a rare development. Porting entertainment experiences to mobile isn’t easy, though when it’s done right, it tends to pay off handsomely. While difficult to develop for, mobile versions of popular properties can be even more attractive than their desktop counterparts thanks to more convenient gameplay, and added features like bonuses.
For example, the online casino industry has been hugely successful in its move into the mobile space for both games and bonus systems. Modern websites offer free spins no deposit mobile verification among their features as a demonstration of this approach, giving newly verified players free spins to enjoy on select titles. This adds value for newcomers, and it’s not really possible through traditional PC or console gaming because of the way these platforms work. Another difference here is that the casino games offered on mobiles play without getting bogged down with performance and control issues, which is not something Apex Legends Mobile could claim.
In other words, if we trust the reasons for Apex Legend’s mobile cancellation, it’s also possible they cancelled the Titanfall game for similar reasons; it didn’t meet the standard of quality. This doesn’t mean the project is necessarily abandoned, however, as games like Doom 4 also had cancelled versions before seeing redesigns as international hits. Given the pressure on a new Titanfall game to perform, we have to hope the quality is the deciding factor, and if it is, a new game would be worth the wait.
