-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
Schreier + others regarding Titanfall 2: Respawn chose their own release date
- Thread starter ThereAreFourNaan
- Start date
I love Titanfall 2. Had it come out in March of the following year, I think it would have had the legs it truly deserved. Bummer.
Makes me wonder if EA put BF1 on that date (I can't remember who was first to announce a date) in order to "force" them to change the dates.
EDIT: BF1 was first to reveal their release date. Respawn got balls, I'll give them that. They probably thought BF1 wasn't going to be too popular due to WW1 and Infinite Warfare was going to be bad because everyone was sick of "boots off the ground" and that initial trailer was bombed with dislikes.
EDIT: BF1 was first to reveal their release date. Respawn got balls, I'll give them that. They probably thought BF1 wasn't going to be too popular due to WW1 and Infinite Warfare was going to be bad because everyone was sick of "boots off the ground" and that initial trailer was bombed with dislikes.
I mean regardless of the BF1 situation which was unfortunate. Why would you intentionally go out of your way to try and force competition slot with an established competitor. Even if it was your former baby. It just reeks of hubris and a tinge of unsettled grudges.
Last edited:
I came in here expecting this EXACT gifWow, they chose poorly then....
Respawn are the guys that made COD4 and MW2?! WTF that makes... a lot of sense because TF feels pretty similar but I didn't realize that! Cool to know.
Back to the subject, well... interesting timing, indeed. I just hope it's fun but I read there's no wall running, which is what makes TF so fun to me. That Attack on Titan feeling hahaha.
I'm willing to bet at least the leads felt like they had something to prove.
In industry circles this has been one of the worst kept secrets in last few years and I'm surprised it's only recently become more widely known.
Hell, I think I was telling people about this story back on Gaf, let alone multiple posts on Era.
From what I understand Battlefield was originally slated for early-to-mid September to give it some buffer between Titanfall and COD. Respawn's whole deal was wanting to go head-to-head with not only their old franchise but what they perceived to be the zombie corpse of their old studio. Honestly a bit of a crazy plan to begin with but they thought they had a lot of momentum coming off Titanfall 1, and they knew from test scores they had an excellent game in Titanfall 2. What Respawn didn't anticipate was DICE slipping their date and causing them to get absolutely sandwiched between Battlefield and COD.
That one moment of hubris essentially forced the sale of the company to EA.
Hell, I think I was telling people about this story back on Gaf, let alone multiple posts on Era.
From what I understand Battlefield was originally slated for early-to-mid September to give it some buffer between Titanfall and COD. Respawn's whole deal was wanting to go head-to-head with not only their old franchise but what they perceived to be the zombie corpse of their old studio. Honestly a bit of a crazy plan to begin with but they thought they had a lot of momentum coming off Titanfall 1, and they knew from test scores they had an excellent game in Titanfall 2. What Respawn didn't anticipate was DICE slipping their date and causing them to get absolutely sandwiched between Battlefield and COD.
That one moment of hubris essentially forced the sale of the company to EA.
Well hopefully they learned there leason
Titanfall 2 is incredible, but it realeased next to two massive franchises.
Also pretty dumb off ea not to move it for them, but i guess since they didnt own them they couldnt at that point
Titanfall 2 is incredible, but it realeased next to two massive franchises.
Also pretty dumb off ea not to move it for them, but i guess since they didnt own them they couldnt at that point
Imagine the meeting West and Zampella had when they realized how much they fucked themselves.
But since the BF1 release date was the most fluid, couldn't EA have put it the week after COD?
I guess they ran the numbers and determined that doing it the way they did would be the best option for EA in the long run.
I mean, anything's possible. EA had a lot more incentive to try and protect BF's numbers (a flagship franchise game from a studio they owned) than Titanfall 2's (second iteration of a relatively new franchise from a studio they did not own), though.
EA had nothing to do with Respawn at the time. They were just contractors of the studio and in that case, they probably just accepted the suggestion coming from Respawn.
It's great so people will stop believing only publishers deserve to be demonized by their stupid decisions. Game developers do most of the stupid decisions.
Sorry but I still don't believe this whatsoever. It was all EA. Respawn is owned by EA so obviously, they will protect their publisher and life line but in no way, shape or form do I believe that anyone at Respawn would be stupid enough to release Titanfall 2 between Battlefield 1 and COD: IW. Just no freaking way.
EA didn't own Respawn at the time the release date decisions were made.
TF2 launched almost 1 year before Respawn sold the studio to EA, so yes, you better believe it.
TF2 fans have always known this. It was common knowledge at release that Respawn helped choose the date, as insane as that choice was.
EA did not own Respawn at the time that this happened. Also only EA can be stupid in this situation but not Respawn for some nebulous reason? How does that make sense? EA sucks but you don't need to lay blame at their feet for something that it seems they didn't do.
Yeah, I was on the Titanfall subreddit for a lot of 2017 cause I was hooked onto TF2. This isn't really a new revelation, is it? I thought it was widely known that Respawn chose the release date.
I mean, the game sold fine compared to almost any other game and EA still kinda left it die afterwards. They don't escape blameless.
Also, probably shouldve vetoed that launch date decision lol. Seems they dont have a grasp on the value of their own properties.
Also, probably shouldve vetoed that launch date decision lol. Seems they dont have a grasp on the value of their own properties.
Something something EA is the literal devil something something devs never screw themselves and publishers are to blame something.
EA didn't own Respawn at the time but they did have one year to make a bid on them and I don't believe in coincidences so releasing TF2 between two other major high selling FPS lowered the stock of Respawn and made them look "weak". A year later, EA owns them? Yeah right. Simply don't believe that shit at all.
Look at all of the shit EA has done. Come on. EA published the game and even if by some miracle, that was true, why the hell would EA allow it to be released when it was? Made no business sense then. Makes no business sense now unless of course, you're EA and want to buy Respawn which they did a year later for less money than what they worth a year earlier.
Simply don't believe it and never ever will.
Look at all of the shit EA has done. Come on. EA published the game and even if by some miracle, that was true, why the hell would EA allow it to be released when it was? Made no business sense then. Makes no business sense now unless of course, you're EA and want to buy Respawn which they did a year later for less money than what they worth a year earlier.
Simply don't believe it and never ever will.
Respawn needed the game to launch when it did in order to secure and attract outside investors for other projects. Unfortunately, they over estimated the brand power of Titanfall and when the game launched, didn't hit the metrics they expected which cost them some publishing deals. Ultimately, this let EA buy them for a VERY low price.
I don't believe the game sold fine at all. Even at launch certain modes were difficult to find matches in.
So literally believing your own conspiracy theories then? Cool at least you admit it.
I had no idea you had a copy of their publishing agreement, you have no fucking proof that EA had ANY say in it. Stop with the EA circlejerk, it gets old really fast. You would rather believe your bad opinion rather than one of the most respected video game journalists out there? Even higherups at Respawn have confirmed it was theirs and their choice alone. Not everything is the publishers fault...
Jason West hasn't been involved in a loooong time. Like before Titanfall 1 was revealed at E3 a long time.
https://www.polygon.com/2013/3/3/4060292/respawn-jason-west-retirement
This is the only thing that makes sense to me.
Otherwise the level of hubris by leadership is staggering.
i'm not convinced moving the release would've helped a whole lot. i mean personally yeah i'd have moved it to early 2017 but holidays are your release valve, people spend the big bucks even if they're busy with CoD and Battlefield, and it's not like everybody will put those down a few months later
You don't believe it because you don't want to believe it and it doesn't fit your narrative. What reason would Schier or his source at Respawn have to lie about something that was taking heat off of them regarding TF2s performance? But whatever. Plug your ears and put your head in the sand.
Geoff Keighley's Final Hours of Titanfall didn't paint a pretty picture of his departure. Years since I read it, but from what I remember he was constantly changing his mind about things, holding back progress, and generally detached from the project, so he was kind of forced into retirement. Again IIRC, most of what was shown at E3 2013 was all done after he left, even.
Last edited:
People forget but MW2 wasn't just a game releasing, it was an event and nothing has ever come close to the amount of hype leading up to release. I can only imagine they thought that they could pull a call of duty and kill it just like they killed MoH back in the day. Problem is that CoD became bigger due to Treyarch becoming better than Infinity Ward so even on a year where everyone was shitting on CoD it still blew out the competition. Doesn't help that Titanfall 1 completely soured everyone and that was absolutely EAs fault if we go by Geoff Keighley Documentary on the games development.
I don't know if I would call $455m for Respawn a "VERY low price."
Bioware + Pandemic was $775m.
Era: EA is forcing Bioware to release Anthem when its not ready.
Real life: Bioware has been working on the game since 2012 and had a 5 year pre production due to their inability to work with Frostbite and unforseen events (Lead passing away)
Era: EA is sending TitanFall 2 to die
Real Life: Respawn believed they had the best title and ego took over
Its as if EA's relationships with their studios isn't just black and white.
Real life: Bioware has been working on the game since 2012 and had a 5 year pre production due to their inability to work with Frostbite and unforseen events (Lead passing away)
Era: EA is sending TitanFall 2 to die
Real Life: Respawn believed they had the best title and ego took over
Its as if EA's relationships with their studios isn't just black and white.
OP
OP
I have now edited it in. Based on what you're saying it seems like they intended to be on the store shelves at the same time, but expected maybe a few more weeks after BF1 before they hit.