It's been revealed that the Titanfall games now have very few people working on them, with only "one or two" Respawn Entertainment developers now handing the FPS franchise. While players continue to hope for a third addition to the Titanfall series, a Respawn staffer has confirmed that most of the studio's staff are instead now dedicated to Apex Legends updates and quality-of-life improvements.
Respawn Entertainment's Titanfall is recognized by many as one of the best-refined FPS series in gaming. Players have been asking for a new addition to the series for years, and while battle royale spin-off Apex Legends is widely regarded as a top-tier free-to-play multiplayer shooter, it hasn't quite filled the void left by Titanfall. The games take place in the same universe, but are still very different in terms of play. The first Titanfall game originally launched in 2014, offering standard on-foot FPS fare mixed with visceral mech combat that was only improved with the second game in the series. Titanfall 2 is a game still widely adored, and speedrunning in Titanfall 2 is still incredibly popular despite the game launching in 2016.
While many players are still enjoying the Titanfall games, Respawn Entertainment is seemingly favoring the development of Apex Legends, according to Respawn community director Jason Garza. As spotted by MP1St, a video published by Garza discussed the Titanfall universe with fans, where he noted that while the community hasn't been fully "abandoned," there are just "one or two" people handling the IP, saying:
"The Titanfall community is not forgotten or abandoned or anything like that. We’re still working on it, it’s just we can’t telegraph our moves, and we only have like one or two people on it because the rest — everybody else is on Apex."
Garza did give some hope for the future of Titanfall, saying, "All I can say is that we’re working on [Titanfall], and that’s why I stopped talking about things like that."
Click here to watch Jason Garza's video.
Having just a couple of developers maintaining the Titanfall games could be worrying news for some players. While Apex Legends does need constant development to provide its season-by-season updates and fresh content, Titanfall 2 also needs some TLC. Titanfall 2 recently soared in popularity on Steam thanks to tie-in content with Apex Legends and a sale. The title saw a 750% increase in concurrent player count, demonstrating a thirst for the classic first-person shooter despite its age. Unfortunately, it seems the huge spike in player numbers hasn't encouraged EA and Respawn to split its staff evenly across Titanfall and the battle royale. It's worth noting that at the time of writing, neither of the companies have yet responded to Garza's comments.
The news is particularly worrying as a number of Titanfall players have recently taken to Apex Legends to raise awareness over hacking issues in Titanfall. Gamers have reported seeing messages from hackers within Apex Legends which aim to draw EA and Respawn's attention to a growing hacking problem in Titanfall. One such message read, "Titanfall 1 is currently unplayable on PC due to hacker(s) using exploits that prevents players from being able to play the game." Whether or not the Titanfall hacking can be resolved quickly with such limited staff on the project remains to be seen.
Titanfall 2 is available on PS4, Xbox One and PC.
Source: MP1st