Support NeoGAF

[ZehDon]

What the hell is going on?

#JustWW1things. EA's PR crew doing their thing.

 

[Gorillaz]

EA probably sweetened the deal by giving Respawn the Star War game and giving Respawn favorable publishing terms. They had to know that serving as the follow up punch to Battlefield 1 in EA's effort to finally dethrone CoD would mean reduced sales so they likely negotiated decent terms and probably made plans to collect long tail revenues after the holidays. My guess is that there will be a price cut that coincides with the release of additional content to drum up sales.

Never thought of that before but the star wars game probably was part of this deal

Yikes that disconnect haha no wonder they wanted to have full ownership

 

[NoLongerALurker]

Respawn*

It's Respawn, not EA.

K, if it's Respawn then get your shit together and get the game available on EA Access so myself and my buddies can try the game and consider buying it.

 

[slosherbomb]

Why the heck would any marketing person compare themselves in a link to call of duty? Why not just represent your game and have a link tied to an amazing trailer of your own game versus a review for a competitor.

 

[RoboPlato]

I hope the franchise dies, I've always wanted these guys to work with licenses. Maybe Star Wars or Bond.

Their second team is already working on Star Wars. I want Titanfall to survive.

 

[QaaQer]

There are a lot of better ways to talk about corporate posturing than sounding like a juvenile saying "dick-measuring."

It looked more like a corporate strategy gamble than dick measuring.

Rainbow Six SIEGE is gigantic and somehow the majority of GAF entirely missed the ball on that one

Hehe yup. Gaf seems to follow the critics when it comes to what's 'best' and what's 'burning dumpster of shit'. Thing is, very few people play more than a couple of $60 games per year; and even fewer play a bunch of games for years on end. Making games to impress critics while satisfying the actual customer base is a really hard juggling act. Maybe really fast, innovative critically acclaimed gameplay isn't what the majority wants.

From that perspective, companies trying to decouple themselves from reviewers makes sense.

 

[Haines]

K, if it's Respawn then get your shit together and get the game available on EA Access so myself and my buddies can try the game and consider buying it.

Thats such horse shit. You are not entitled to a free demo.

If you dont want to buy it, dont. Excuses are a joke.

 

[Schlorgan]

Maybe I'm reading into it too much, but Respawn sounds pissed.

Edit: just got it. I'm slow.

 

[Radical Edward]

Both Titanfall 1 and 2 look lame with an ugly as fuck boring color palette and not much that sets it apart from COD imo. I wish I knew art terminology so I could explain in detail why it looks so ugly but I can't, it's just something I feel intuitively, it looks like Socom 4's coloring. There's some kind of filter over everything that makes it all brownish, bloomy, and dampens the vibrancy. I don't know how else to describe it. If you look at a mountain in the game with foliage it's like you can hardly see the foliage because it feels so close in color/tone to the mountain, compared to other games where the difference is very stark/obvious. I hate when games look like this it's so bad to me.

As for gameplay the mech stuff isn't interesting to me nor is wall running. If you want a game like COD you'll get COD, if you want a different kind of FPS I don't see why anyone would pick Titanfall over something like Battlefield 1 or Counter Strike or Overwatch/TF2. The problem isn't EA trying a risk it's risking everything on a game that looks meh.

Have you played either game? BF1, hasn't been in my ps4 since TF launched and i'm definitely skipping cod this year because TF2 is so damn amazing. It's pure fun in sp and mp and allows for some of the craziest/holysit moments in any mp game I've ever played

 

[ghibli99]

It's frightening to me that a game as high quality as Titanfall 2, with a well-known predecessor and pretty wide appeal, doesn't sell.

 

[Delusibeta]

Thats such horse shit. You are not entitled to a free demo.

If you dont want to buy it, dont. Excuses are a joke.

Considering EA Access is a) not free, and b) promised a free demo to all EA published games prior to launch, I'd say he's entitled to get what was advertised to him.

 

[EL CUCO]

So it was EA all along lol

Idk how Vince deals with these guys. Really is slim pickings I guess.

 

[excaliburps]

While it's kinda evident now that Titanfall 2 needs more sales, this article is kinda odd in the sense that it's basing its argument on an analyst forecast and nothing more. I mean, can't it have at least waited for retailers, EA, etc. to release market figures (doubt it), or anything that's actually tangible?

And yeah, hope there's TF3. I think there will be, and EA better find a better release window for it.

If you're on the fence about TF2, what with reviews almost all being positive (90 on Metacritic now) and even GAF word of mouth is good, just because "teh gaem might eb deadz" or something, then I don't know what to say. If everyone who was apprehensive getting it actually got it, then player population won't be an issue.

Honestly, don't think it is, at least for consoles. Xbox gets 30-40K+, while it's at 19K close to 20K now (6pm ET) currently on PS4. Heck, if I'm not mistaken, it actually rose since it was usually 15-16K at this time on PS4. And thankfully, it doesn't seem to be affected by Infinite Warfare's release. On weekends, it's usually 25K-30K+ at least this past weekend based on the times I was playing.

Speaking of, I know Call of Duty has never been a system mover on PC, but man, it's been stuck at 12-13K all day http://store.steampowered.com/stats/ TF2 had like 15K originally on PC, not sure now. Has this been always the case for every CoD PC release?

 

[KiefbladeMaster]

They should have gotten even more snarky with the IW tweet and mentioned the only reason people are getting it is to play a remaster of a game they made themselves.

Disappointed in EA for sending this out against huge IP's, really. Just CoD I could understand, but they sent it out against their biggest FPS IP as well.. The game is amazing and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys FPS' at all. That's in regards to SP and MP. I have a feeling it'll do just fine with sales this Holiday season though. Word of mouth is helping a lot, I'm seeing a bunch of friends get into it now.

 

[Schlorgan]

While it's kinda evident now that Titanfall 2 needs more sales, this article is kinda odd in the sense that it's basing its argument on an analyst forecast and nothing more. I mean, can't it have at least waited for retailers, EA, etc. to release market figures (doubt it), or anything that's actually tangible?

And yeah, hope there's TF3. I think there will be, and EA better find a better release window for it.

If you're on the fence about TF2, what with reviews almost all being positive (90 on Metacritic now) and even GAF word of mouth is good, just because "teh gaem might eb deadz" or something, then I don't know what to say. If everyone who was apprehensive getting it actually got it, then player population won't be an issue.

Honestly, don't think it is, at least for consoles. Xbox gets 30-40K+, while it's at 19K close to 20K now (6pm ET) currently on PS4. Heck, if I'm not mistaken, it actually rose since it was usually 15-16K at this time on PS4. And thankfully, it doesn't seem to be affected by Infinite Warfare's release. On weekends, it's usually 25K-30K+ at least this past weekend based on the times I was playing.

Speaking of, I know Call of Duty has never been a system mover on PC, but man, it's been stuck at 12-13K all day http://store.steampowered.com/stats/ TF2 had like 15K originally on PC, not sure now. Has this been always the case for every CoD PC release?

But "teh gaem might eb deadz" generates clicks. :3

 

[RichiRamjag]

Both Titanfall 1 and 2 look lame with an ugly as fuck boring color palette and not much that sets it apart from COD imo. I wish I knew art terminology so I could explain in detail why it looks so ugly but I can't, it's just something I feel intuitively, it looks like Socom 4's coloring. There's some kind of filter over everything that makes it all brownish, bloomy, and dampens the vibrancy. I don't know how else to describe it. If you look at a mountain in the game with foliage it's like you can hardly see the foliage because it feels so close in color/tone to the mountain, compared to other games where the difference is very stark/obvious. I hate when games look like this it's so bad to me.

As for gameplay the mech stuff isn't interesting to me nor is wall running. If you want a game like COD you'll get COD, if you want a different kind of FPS I don't see why anyone would pick Titanfall over something like Battlefield 1 or Counter Strike or Overwatch/TF2. The problem isn't EA trying a risk it's risking everything on a game that looks meh.

It's a fun game. I only brought black ops 3 because I hoped it was somewhat similar to titanfall and I didn't have my X1 at the time. Boy was that a waste of $60. You don't have to like the mechanics, but if mechs and wall running don't appeal to you, then you're probably not the best person to take advice on in regards to the game.

 

[Delusibeta]

Speaking of, I know Call of Duty has never been a system mover on PC, but man, it's been stuck at 12-13K all day http://store.steampowered.com/stats/ TF2 had like 15K originally on PC, not sure now. Has this been always the case for every CoD PC release?

Only in recent years. After MW2 had no dedicated servers, the franchise has been in decline on PC, and I think it was Advanced Warfare that had the first really noticeable population problem, and CoD hasn't recovered since. Judging by the launch figures, Infinite Warfare doesn't seem to have bucked the trend.

 

[Kelegacy]

Titanfall 2 is awesome. Never played the first since it was multiplayer only and I won't pay for Live AND PS Plus but snagged the sequel on PS4 and love it. I will give the MP a try this weekend.

 

[NoLongerALurker]

Thats such horse shit. You are not entitled to a free demo.

If you dont want to buy it, dont. Excuses are a joke.

Guess I missed the boat on EA Access being free. Look I put days into TF1 and the TF2 tech test was such an incredible disappointment and clearly it was to a whole helluva lot of other people. Respawn should be doing everything they can to get this game into people's hands or else TF3 will never be a thing.

Considering EA Access is a) not free, and b) promised a free demo to all EA published games prior to launch, I'd say he's entitled to get what was advertised to him.

Thank you.

 

[oneils]

EA is a piece of shit to respawn yet again.

Again? What happened before?

And hopefully no one seriously thinks ea wanted it to fail. The only thing that makes sense is that they thought they genuinely had a hit that would steal market share from CoD. I interpret it as a signal of their confidence in the game. We will see if that was a mistake.

 

[excaliburps]

But "teh gaem might eb deadz" generates clicks. :3

Point.

It's a fun game. I only brought black ops 3 because I hoped it was somewhat similar to titanfall and I didn't have my X1 at the time. Boy was that a waste of $60. You don't have to like the mechanics, but if mechs and wall running don't appeal to you, then you're probably not the best person to take advice on in regards to the game.

Didn't BO3 have a big PC player base? I played on PS4 (and yeah, I loved it before the Supply Drop thing overtook everything). This is insanely low, though (for a CoD game). I mean, TF2 having "only" 15K players on PC and people were calling it "dead."

Granted, 13K players is still a lot. Doubt people would have to wait for matches.

For reference, BF1 has over 100K on PC, and over 250K on PS4 (damn!) http://bf1stats.com/

Good news is, TF2 doesn't seem to be affected one bit. Now at 19975 players on PS4, which is roughly the same number of people it had this same time yesterday.

 

[KiefbladeMaster]

Point.



Didn't BO3 have a big PC player base? I played on PS4 (and yeah, I loved it before the Supply Drop thing overtook everything). This is insanely low, though (for a CoD game). I mean, TF2 having "only" 15K players on PC and people were calling it "dead."

Granted, 13K players is still a lot. Doubt people would have to wait for matches.

For reference, BF1 has over 100K on PC, and over 250K on PS4 (damn!) http://bf1stats.com/

Good news is, TF2 doesn't seem to be affected one bit. Now at 19975 players on PS4, which is roughly the same number of people it had this same time yesterday.

I haven't seen official numbers, but I'd assume it was decent. They released the MP only portion for $15 on steam.

 

[HardRojo]

It's a shame if it doesn't reach desirable numbers, because I was actually thinking of jumping in withbthis installment, as it seems like Respawn did a great job with it and it performs amazingly well on consoles.

 

[tearsintherain]

10k players online (worldwide) on PC a few minutes ago, same as earlier in the week, I'd expect it to be even higher in 3-4 hours during US primetime. So PC platform seems pretty decent, one week later.

Still nowhere near BF1 though, which currently has 100k PC players and 550k players on all systems.

Titanfall 1 has 672 players worldwide on PC at the moment

My PS4's friends list is a mix of Destiny, Infinite Warfare, Modern Warfare, Battlefield 1, and single player games. Not a single T2 player in 60 people online.

 

[Schlorgan]

It's a shame if it doesn't reach desirable numbers, because I was actually thinking of jumping in withbthis installment, as it seems like Respawn did a great job with it and it performs amazingly well on consoles.

It's at fairly acceptable numbers now. Depending on your region you probably wouldn't have problems finding games.

 

[SomTervo]

Rainbow Six Siege was a "failure", too, after launch, and has made amazing strides with post-launch support. I wouldn't write off Titanfall 2 yet.

What I was thinking. Making something special shines nowadays even if Day One isn't great.

 

[vasametropolis]

I've said it a couple times, and while it won't absolutely guarantee popularity or anything, the post launch DLC is free... players can join whenever just for the cost of the game and not miss out. This may push latecomers over the edge and buy it.

 

[excaliburps]

I haven't seen official numbers, but I'd assume it was decent. They released the MP only portion for $15 on steam.

Ah! Didn't know that. Thanks!

It's a shame if it doesn't reach desirable numbers, because I was actually thinking of jumping in withbthis installment, as it seems like Respawn did a great job with it and it performs amazingly well on consoles.

Now is a good time as any. PS4 is healthy and from what I know, Xbox has even more players. Free DLC, even. SP and MP both are solid. I alternate this with BF1, but I admit, I've been playing TF2 more (level 37).

If it's any consolation, even if I don't do that well, I still have fun since I just try to tear shit up as a Titan. Possibly the first MP game in a long while where I wanted to unlock gun camos since most of them are actualy viable and not "filler" guns.

 

[PrinceKee]

I really hope sales pickup and post launch support is there because this game is so much fun. I loved the first Titanfall and was pretty iffy about the sequel after the beta and had planned on Battlefield 1 being my main online FPS, but I find myself having more fun with TF2 and the single player is amazing also. Hopefully post launch support plus sales during the holiday help it along and it doesn't get completely lost in the Battlefield 1 AND COD IW madness because IMO it's the better game overall and love BF1...

 

[FStop7]

LOL this is like a replay of the late game of Infinity Ward and Activision's relationship before the big breakup. People from Infinity Ward and marketing people at Activision corporate started to beef with each other.

 

[Schlorgan]

LOL this is like a replay of the late game of Infinity Ward and Activision's relationship before the big breakup. People from Infinity Ward and marketing people at Activision corporate started to beef with each other.

We're not quite at that level

Spoiler

yet.

 

[potatohead]

Oh please, most of this battle is done through marketing.

There is not a problem of "too much chest beating." That's the whole point of marketing. You can't sell a game without some chest thumping in this day and age.

 

[erlim]

I feel like the thing to do would be switch off between the two franchises from fall to summer. Instead of a couple days apart. They cannibalized themselves. Although call of duty has name recognition.

 

[Asd202]

Can't wait to see what happens to CDR after it will get bought out by EA,

 

[CaptainofIndustry]

I think Titanfall will be fine. It's a great game and I think it will sell well throughout the holiday season.

I have 40 people online right now on my friends list (of over 200 people). Two people are playing Titanfall 2, two are playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare Remastered, one is playing Call of Duty Infinite Warfare, nobody is playing Battlefield 1. I thought my friends list would be filled with people playing these games but a lot of people are playing older games from this generation. I'm wondering if Day One sales in general are lower than what they used to be across the board.

 

[Schlorgan]

Can't wait to see what happens to CDR after it will get bought out by EA,

Watch, it'll actually be a mobile company that makes them focus everything on Gwent.

 

[kuYuri]

Titanfall 2 will likely die a slow death similar to the first game, it's a shame, but the market has spoken.

It will have its dedicated community, but the same can be said for just about any game out there.

 

[Reebot]

FTFY

Actually "a contingent" is made redundant by "not universally," so no, you didn't fix it, or even change the sentence's meaning.

On topic: game was sent to die.

It had bad demo - even folk who like the game must recognize that at best opinions split, hard.

It directly competes with BF 1 and IW, juggernauts of the genre. Titanfall isn't the kind of IP that can hang with those two.

The messaging, marketing, and overall release strategy were completely terrible.

 

[Schlorgan]

Actually "a contingent" is made redundant by "not universally," so no, you didn't fix it, or even change the sentence's meaning.

I realized that I made a mistake and thought I edited my post to reflect that. I guess I didn't. I apologize.

 

[Triggerhappytel]

Both Titanfall 1 and 2 look lame with an ugly as fuck boring color palette and not much that sets it apart from COD imo. I wish I knew art terminology so I could explain in detail why it looks so ugly but I can't, it's just something I feel intuitively, it looks like Socom 4's coloring. There's some kind of filter over everything that makes it all brownish, bloomy, and dampens the vibrancy. I don't know how else to describe it. If you look at a mountain in the game with foliage it's like you can hardly see the foliage because it feels so close in color/tone to the mountain, compared to other games where the difference is very stark/obvious. I hate when games look like this it's so bad to me.

Have you even played Titanfall 2?! This does not compute at all. The visuals and art style are great, with some beautiful vistas and some that look straight out of Halo while others look like they're from Avatar. The use of colour is great and levels are visually distinct from one another (based on my 2/3 of the campaign so far, I estimate) and there's a nice mixture of organic and artificial environments.

Honestly, I think it's visually great and your comments about the brownish look and boring colour pallette are baffling.

 

[veloxStrix]

I hope the franchise dies, I've always wanted these guys to work with licenses. Maybe Star Wars or Bond.

I dream of a world where the only games that exists are rehashes of other franchises and the medium has no purpose other than to sell other products.

 

[The Cartographer]

Shouldn't they wait a little more (like a month) before writing this kind of articles?

I'm talking about the commercial failure part, not the wrong release date part by the way.

 

[excaliburps]

Titanfall 2 will likely die a slow death similar to the first game, it's a shame, but the market has spoken.

It will have its dedicated community, but the same can be said for just about any game out there.

Eh, who has spoken? Unless I'm mistaken, its player base hasn't been affected by Infinite Warfare at all (at least from player population), and it seems to be rising (even if it's slow). I wouldn't count it out just yet with Black Friday, Christmas right around the corner, and game awards happening later this year.

Shouldn't they wait a little more (like a month) before writing this kind of articles?

I'm talking about the commercial failure part, not the wrong release date part by the way.

Exactly what I said since the entire article seems to base its sales data on that analyst report on how TF2's sales will "disappoint" by "only" selling 5-6m instead of 9m. Mind, I think 5-6m is still a good number. And I know for a fact that TF2 doesn't cost as much to make as a CoD game.

 

[Messofanego]

#JustWW1things. EA's PR crew doing their thing.

What an absolute dumpster fire that EA's marketing has been this year for their games. First trying to pit Titanfall 2 against CoD and then this tasteless hashtag.

 

[Primethius]

Shouldn't they wait a little more (like a month) before writing this kind of articles?

I'm talking about the commercial failure part, not the wrong release date part by the way.

We already have UK data. And that generally tends to be like the mini-US in terms of sales (with the occasional title leaning a bit more US or UK like).

In the UK, Titanfall 2 bombed. I'm pretty sure it sold less then the XB1 version of ROTR last year at launch.

It's such a massive drop off from TF1 in UK sales, it's actually kind of insane.

 

[airmangataosenai]

The sales info we do have makes a lot of tge hand wringing in the old threads about the game being platform exclusive being a mistake amuding in retrospect. People on GAF continually misunderstand what a valuable asset being an exclusive on a platform can be if you leverage that status correctly.

 

[The_Hitcher89]

Again? What happened before?

And hopefully no one seriously thinks ea wanted it to fail. The only thing that makes sense is that they thought they genuinely had a hit that would steal market share from CoD. I interpret it as a signal of their confidence in the game. We will see if that was a mistake.

Didn't EA essentially go over Respawn's heads to make TF1 Xbox One exclusive?

May well be completely wrong there though with Respawn owning the IP, not sure EA even had the power to do that.

 

[Primethius]

The sales info we do have makes a lot of tge hand wringing in the old threads about the game being platform exclusive being a mistake amuding in retrospect. People on GAF continually misunderstand what a valuable asset being an exclusive on a platform can be if you leverage that status correctly.

If by leveraging the status correctly you mean having an amazing marketing campaign, then yes, you are right.

 

[Chris1]

Didn't EA essentially go over Respawn's heads to make TF1 Xbox One exclusive?

May well be completely wrong there though with Respawn owning the IP, not sure EA even had the power to do that.

Nah it was always exclusive, but it was originally timed exclusive (this wasn't known until they said it was exclusive for the life of the title though). Vince Zampella then tweeted out saying they didn't know about it.

I don't think Respawn was completely oblivious to it though. They own the IP I doubt EA just went ahead and made the deal without even letting Respawn know or asking their opinion etc. I think Zampella was just trying to save face or something.. but that's just my opinion. I find it hard to believe they knew absolutely nothing about it like he makes out.

If by leveraging the status correctly you mean having an amazing marketing campaign, then yes, you are right.

That's the biggest thing but I think just simply being an exclusive helps games, people buy exclusives no matter what really.

 

[The_Hitcher89]

Nah it was always exclusive, but it was originally timed exclusive (this wasn't known until they said it was exclusive for the life of the title though). Vince Zampella then tweeted out saying they didn't know about it.

I don't think Respawn was completely oblivious to it though. They own the IP I doubt EA just went ahead and made the deal without even letting Respawn know or asking their opinion etc. I think Zampella was just trying to save face or something.. but that's just my opinion. I find it hard to believe they knew absolutely nothing about it like he makes out.

Cheers, remember it was originally timed exclusive now

That sequence of events seems to make the most sense