Over the course of the last generation, Respawn Entertainment has risen through the ranks to become one of the strongest, most prolific developers that publisher EA has in its arsenal. Starting with the reasonably well-received multiplayer-only shooterTitanfall, Respawn has become an unstoppable juggernaut, releasing hit after hit from the critically acclaimedTitanfall 2to the free-to-play battle royaleApex Legendsand the galaxy-faring action-adventure title,Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
Titanfall 2succeeded critically and commercially, believed to have sold between five to six million copies, but didn’t receive the attention it deserved due to being sandwiched between EA’s ownBattlefield 1and Activision’sCall of Duty: Infinite Warfare. Nearly four years on, there has been little to no sign of aTitanfall 3and while it’s clearthe success ofApex Legendsis at least a minor contributing factor, is it Respawn or EA that’s calling the shot?
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The Legacy of Titanfall
Respawn Entertainment was founded in 2010 by Jason West and Vince Zampella, the original co-founders of Infinity Ward and creators of theCall of Dutyfranchise. When things fell south during thedevelopment ofCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the pair were fired by Activision and, in turn, founded Respawn Entertainment with the goal of creating the next big first-person shooter franchise, something that EA was immediately on board with.Titanfallreleased in 2014 as an always-online multiplayer shooter, exclusive to PC and Xbox, and was praised for its innovative gameplay but criticized for the lack of a campaign and thin offering.
By itself,Titanfallwas a fun game that brought a lot of innovation to the genre. It was immediately clear that Respawn was onto something but ultimately fell short, and soTitanfallcame and went and would’ve been forgotten to time if it wasn’t for the sequel. When Respawn Entertainment releasedTitanfall 2in October 2016, it was met with critical acclaim, receiving dozens of nominations including ‘Game of the Year’ at The Game Awards and ‘Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay’ at the D.I.C.E. Awards that year.Titanfall 2demonstrated just how good Respawn Entertainment is at creating innovative combat, levels, characters, and boss fights, traits that were later expanded on in 2019’ssingle-player only,Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
EA “Won’t Forget” About Titanfall 3
In February 2019, Respawn Entertainment shadow dropped the free-to-play battle royale,Apex Legends, set within the universe of theTitanfallseries and using many of the series assets. When the world assumed Respawn would be developingTitanfall 3, it was starting to look like that might not be the case consideringStar Wars Jedi: Fallen Orderwas due out at the end of the year, and a third game, a VR first-person shooter later revealed to beMedal of Honor: Above and Beyond, was also in development. In a matter of days,Apex Legendsblew up and as of October 2019, the battle royale was said to have had approximately 70 million players worldwide. Whatever plans were in place, the success ofApex Legendsmeant thatRespawn was delayingTitanfall 3.
DuringEA’s quarterly earnings callat the end of October 2019, the publisher spoke about the success ofApex Legendsand how the roadmap created by Respawn meant it viewed the battle royale almost as an “annual shooter” franchise, with the intention of turningApex Legendsinto a “10-year business.” EA also briefly touched onTitanfall 3and confirmed that the IP won’t be forgotten about, potentially teasing a return later down the road. “We really want to keep the team hyper-focused on [Apex Legends] because we see there’s so much opportunity there,” EA COO and CFO Blake Jorgensen said. “I can’t give you a sense of if and when [Titanfall 3] will come, but it’s still a great brand and we certainly won’t forget about it down the road.”
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EA Shouldn’t Forget About Titanfall 3
Vince Zampella has expressed the developer’s desire to be more than just a shooter-based developer when discussing the release of third-person action-adventure,Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. At an estimated 315 employees as of 2019, Respawn Entertainment hasn’t publicly mentioned the exact number of development teams it has internally, but there was at least two for the development ofStar Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, one forStar Warsand one forApex Legends.
Assuming theStar Wars Jedi: Fallen Order 2rumorsare true and the game is in pre-production, theFallen Orderteam has either moved on to help withMedal of Honor: Above and Beyondwhich is due out sometime in 2020 or a third team exists. Needless to say, Respawn’s assets are seemingly stretched pretty thin. And it sounds like even if the team had the manpower, it doesn’t want to be stuck working on first-person shooters forever.
BetweenApex Legends,Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, and the inevitableStar Wars Jedi: Fallen Order 2, right now it’s just not realistic to releaseTitanfall 3. However, with next-gen consoles like Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 on the horizon, it’s not a bad time for the team to be working out the groundwork for what anext-generationTitanfall 3could be in a few years time. There’s no need to releaseTitanfall 3right now, but fans do need to know that it’s something being considered.Titanfallis far too beloved to be forgotten about and Respawn Entertainment had only just begun to realize the IP’s full potential withTitanfall 2(although one could also make that argument forApex Legendstoo).
