EA is purchasing Respawn Entertainment and a new Titanfall game has been confirmed according to a blog post by CEO Vince Zampella.
“While it wasn’t necessary, going with EA made a lot of sense. With Titanfall and Star Wars, EA has been a great development partner that supports us and doesn’t interfere with our process for making games or studio culture. EA will provide us with more resources, access to new technologies, and expertise that we can tap into to that will help us make better games, and Respawn will retain the same creative freedom and culture we’ve always had. We’ve been talking closely with the leadership at EA and we share their values and vision for the future of being a developer-focused company that puts the players first.”
Respawn Entertainment was founded by Vince Zampella, Jason West, and other team members of Infinity Ward after their split from Activision over unpaid royalties from Call of Duty. Their first game, Titanfall, was released on Xbox One and PC in spring of 2014. An Xbox 360 version by Bluepoint Games was released a month later.
The original Titanfall was met with criticism due to its lack of a single-player campaign however the innovative gameplay mechanics and battles with large robots (aka Titans) was a refreshing change at the time.
Titanfall 2 was released on PlayStation 4, PC, and Xbox One that added a much requested single-player campaign. If you haven’t played it yet, it’s one of the best single-player campaigns I’ve ever played.
Some gamers have already expressed concerns over microtransactions and loot crates given the fact that EA has used them recently in games such as FIFA, Madden, NBA LIVE, Battlefield, and Star Wars Battlefront.
If EA and Respawn learn anything from the mobile game, Titanfall Assault (iOS/Android), we may soon see microtransactions in this franchise as well. Personally, I love Titanfall Assault, but I haven’t used any real-world currency to unlock loot crates or higher powered units.
Despite all this, Respawn Entertainment does need to be commended for not charging for a season pass. All of Titanfall 2‘s DLC released after launch has been free. Here’s hoping that doesn’t change with the next Titanfall.
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