Live Magazine Christmas 2016 Edition

OPINION
A Look Back
the Best (and Most Polarizi
With Titanfall 2 due out tomorrow, it
seems like a good excuse to revisit
the 2014 title that started it all. The
original Titanfall first appeared on
the national radar at E3 2013, where
it quickly became a critical darling. It
won over 60 awards, including an unprecedented
six E3 Critics Awards.
Amongst the gaming community,
though, the reactions were more
mixed. Some saw it as deliverance
from an increasingly stale and safe
genre. Others dismissed it superciliously
as “Call of Duty with mechs.”
What explains the divergence in
opinion? First-person shooter fatigue
surely played a part. Yet just
as real estate is all about “location,
location, location,” all too often video
games are about exclusives, exclusives,
exclusives. The fact that Titanfall
found a home on PC, Xbox
One, and Xbox 360 — and not PS4
— rubbed some fans the wrong way.
As a result we saw many Xbox fans
championing the game as the Second
Coming, and many PlayStation
fans doubting its quality and appeal.
So, over two years later, who was
right? Well, both sides in a way. On
the commercial front, Titanfall failed
to capitalize on the enormous level
of hype surrounding the title in the
months leading to launch in March
2014. Forbes’ Paul Tassi wrote in
April that “very shortly after release,
the buzz seemed to fade abnormally
quickly.”
The exact number of units sold
across three platforms is difficult
to discern — developer Respawn
boasted of 10 million unique players
and Electronic Arts CFO Blake
Jorgensen stated “a little more than
7 million units”. Our estimates currently
put it just shy of 5 million sold
at retail. Regardless of the actual
figure it’s safe to say that Titanfall
was neither the blockbuster hit nor
the Xbox One “killer app” that many
anticipated.
Why did Titanfall’s buzz drop precipitously
in the months after launch? I’d
argue it hinged on two factors: lack
of modes and zero offline content.
Although a large number of modern
gamers enjoy broadband internet
and are accustomed to playing online,
many remain wary of onlineonly
games. Server support is finite
and can end suddenly. Look at Dead
Star, which is losing server support
on November 1 after only seven
months on the market, leaving only
the tutorial playable.
The fact that Titanfall launched with
only five modes — all multiplayer —
also hurt post-launch momentum.
A proper single-player campaign
would have done wonders, as would
a co-op mode or a free-for-all com-