Home Gaming EA defends the timing of the release of Titanfall 2

EA defends the timing of the release of Titanfall 2

2 min read
68

Sammich

What’s the biggest fail of the year? Battlborn? My attempt to roll a high number for initiative in Pathfinder? Nope! I’d point my finger (MY FINGER POINTS!) at EA here, for deciding to release one of the best shooters of the year between the likes of Battlefield 1 and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. Now that’s not a slap to either of those two franchises.

They’re both very good games with very passionate fanbases who can’t wait to throw a few genital-related slurs at your face when you hop into an online match. But by all accounts, Titanfall 2 may be the best game so far. It’s fun, hectic and it works magic with an engine that is older than my references. Or as Geoff put it in his review:

Titanfall 2 is a far more “complete” package then that the first game was, offering one of the best single player campaigns in first person shooter, and a robust and cleverly nuanced multiplayer. It’s everything the first game should have been.

Along with the fact that all of the DLC will be free here because EA and Respawn Entertainment feel like being really really nice guys, Titanfall 2 should be selling by the bucket-load. But it’s not, as predictions of lacklustre week one sales came true. Titanfall 2 is struggling to sell well right now thanks to that scheduling blunder, although EA is ready to defend the quality of this sequel as the company rubbished any claims that they had set up the Respawn sequel to fail.

Titanfall-2-(1)

Speaking at an earnings call via Gamespot, EA CEO Andrew Wilson answered a question on whether or not the publisher would consider ever repeating this scheduling idea ever again. “We think there’s really three types of players,” Wilson said.

People that really love Battlefield and that kind of big strategic gameplay that will orient in that direction; the player that loves the fast, fluid, kinetic gameplay of Titanfall 2 that really orient in that direction; and the player that just has to play the two greatest shooters this year and will buy both. And again, we’re very very excited about the quality in both titles.

We believe they both will have a long sale cycle, both this quarter through the festive season and deep into the years to come. And so as we think about the long game on this, we couldn’t be in a better position for what we think is delivering great games to a very, very big player base.

Well that’s a fine dance around the question then. Still, with a ton of positive press behind it I’m hoping that Titanfall 2 will be a consistent seller as Wilson said above, especially with the silly season coming up. I’m not a big fan of first week sales being the focus of any big budget game these days, a cycle of sales that Titanfall 2 has the chance to break out of.

Last Updated: November 3, 2016

68 Comments

  1. EA is so silly, they should go to Camelot.

    Reply

  2. Ottokie

    November 3, 2016 at 08:24

    I was hoping they would rather defend the price tag of that game. If you want to compete with COD and BF then you have to show that you are really “for the players” but nope, greed greed greed.

    Reply

    • James Robinson

      November 4, 2016 at 11:19

      you didn’t read the article then. FREE DLC ???????

      Reply

      • Ottokie

        November 4, 2016 at 11:38

        At R1300 for the base game I would think DLC is free and hand delivered by a dev in a maid uniform.

        Reply

  3. CodeDisQus

    November 3, 2016 at 08:24

    Always gonna be a stupid move…. I mean if you ask the gaming community, everyone should know about Titanfall, but to the wider audience, it’s COD or BF…. so to pit it against those 2 was just stupid…. Like you said, let’s hope that it sells consistently because the guys at Reagan clearly have a crap ton of talent and we don’t want to see them get into trouble because of poor TF2 sales……. Aren’t they also doing a Star wars project?

    Reply

    • Dungeon of JJ

      November 3, 2016 at 09:05

      I think EA is trying to butter its bread on both sides. It has the historic shooter in BF1, while COD is the futuristic one, so now EA wants BOTH a historic and futuristic shooter under their offerings.

      Reply

  4. Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0

    November 3, 2016 at 08:29

    EA is throwing Titanfall under the bus to try and hurt COD sales, simple as that

    Reply

    • TwinStripeUK

      November 3, 2016 at 10:53

      ^^This. It’s pretty clear that they know that different types of players prefer Battlefield to CoD and vice-versa, and they thought they’d try and get a twitch shooter out to directly compete with Activision. Stupid really, because love it or hate it CoD is a juggernaut and a poor selling Call of Duty will easily out-sell most other games up against it.

      Shame, because the Beta for TF2 made me cancel my pre-order; the full version actually turned out a LOT better.

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0

        November 3, 2016 at 11:07

        It is a shame, seeing a new(ish) IP being swallowed by the annual block buster schedule. Plus it has robots. Everyone loves those

        Reply

        • TwinStripeUK

          November 3, 2016 at 11:39

          And, to be fair, if anyone deserves success, it’s Respawn. They got screwed over at Activision and now it’s happening again.

          Reply

  5. Dungeon of JJ

    November 3, 2016 at 08:31

    The DLC is free because EA is trying to scrape together what’s left of their reputation.

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0

      November 3, 2016 at 08:35

      Not even Ant-Man can shrink that small to find their reputation

      Reply

      • Dungeon of JJ

        November 3, 2016 at 08:37

        Haha. I also noticed on Origin that only EA’s own games are at the R1000 price mark. All games that appear on other clients as well, such as Steam and Uplay, are priced lower to be able to compete. So all that BS about trying to justify the R1k price is now even more clear.

        Reply

  6. Dungeon of JJ

    November 3, 2016 at 08:34

    I think the SP part of the game might be something I’d like to try some day, but that will be when the game is priced right. So not soon.

    Reply

  7. Alien Emperor Trevor

    November 3, 2016 at 08:36

    Maybe that’s why many people don’t really care about Titanfail 2. 1 wasn’t a complete package.

    Reply

  8. Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0

    November 3, 2016 at 08:40

    Now that’s what I call a titanic sandwich…
    *Goes to make more coffee

    Reply

    • Dungeon of JJ

      November 3, 2016 at 08:47

      Careful you don’t hit an iceberg on the way.
      *goes for extra strong coffee*

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0

        November 3, 2016 at 08:50

        EA’s ship is rudderless anyways. It’s best that it sink

        Reply

      • Andre Fourie

        November 3, 2016 at 09:52

        *Pours Whiskey in both coffees.

        Reply

        • Dungeon of JJ

          November 3, 2016 at 10:03

          *starts talking like a pirate*

          Reply

  9. Viper_ZA

    November 3, 2016 at 08:52

    EA, you really are a useless piece of sh*t.

    Reply

  10. Pieter Kruger

    November 3, 2016 at 08:59

    If it doesn’t sell well maybe it’ll make it’s way to EA Access after all…….?

    Reply

  11. James Anderton

    November 3, 2016 at 09:14

    I’ve been giving it a go. It’s a great game, right up there with DOOM for shooter of the year.

    I feel really sorry for Respawn. EA fked them, hard.

    Reply

  12. Darren Peach

    November 3, 2016 at 09:19

    Burn Mofos……….. BURN ! Sell a game in a country that gives a latency of 200 ms. You deserve to fail.

    Reply

  13. Raptor Rants

    November 3, 2016 at 09:19

    I don’t support EA.

    Let’s recap:

    1) They block an entire country
    2) They randomly increase game prices over 40%
    3) They intentionally destroy chances of Titanfall and so hurting Respawn (Remember the contractual obligations of selling certain amounts that the suits put down?)
    4) There was a fourth thing but I can’t remember now.

    Reply

    • Darren Peach

      November 3, 2016 at 09:19

      Latency ?

      Reply

      • Raptor Rants

        November 3, 2016 at 09:22

        Latency is nothing to do with them. That’s internet. So no.

        Reply

        • Darren Peach

          November 3, 2016 at 09:24

          Actually……… If they want to compete with the likes of COD, It would be wise for them to have dedicated servers in whatever country they decide to launch their product in. Honestly, If we are expected to fork out over 1k for a short campaign, then our money should be justified on a tight multiplayer experience.

          Reply

          • James Anderton

            November 3, 2016 at 09:26

            In a perfect world, this would be expected.

            Our market is puny compared to even a single medium-large city in the US or Europe.

          • Darren Peach

            November 3, 2016 at 09:27

            Irrelevant, If they sell their product on our market, they should support it correctly.

          • Raptor Rants

            November 3, 2016 at 09:28

            That’s not possible. The market is too small. How are the servers going to be paid for and maintained? Through the profits of other regions? That’s not ok either

          • Darren Peach

            November 3, 2016 at 09:32

            Actually, It is. If Activision can do it, Why can’t EA and Respawn ? Stop selling yourself short. You are arguing against proper service and support for a product that was released into our market.

          • Raptor Rants

            November 3, 2016 at 09:37

            Because it’s wrong. That’s like using our tax money to fund Australia schools. It wouldn’t make sense

          • Darren Peach

            November 3, 2016 at 09:44

            It’s wrong ? Great argument…….. I wonder how COD does it ?

          • Darren Peach

            November 3, 2016 at 09:48

            Please answer my question, If COD can give us dedicated servers why is it a problem or as you say……. wrong ( dumb argument bring tax into it ) why can’t EA ? What the fuck are you talking about ?

          • Raptor Rants

            November 3, 2016 at 10:32

            COD is a single entity. Just like BF is. They are far larger in terms than Titanfall. The player base for those are large enough to get the dedicated Mweb servers in place. I’m talking about the fact that the costs to support the servers would be too great vs playerbase for Titanfall.

            Secondly the tax example is valid because to support Titanfall in ZA they would have to take profit from other regions to maintain the servers in ZA for the considerably smaller playerbase and that would be like using tax from other countries to support ourselves.

            COD and BF have local servers because they have large enough player bases. They also only got them in more recent years when the player base became big enough. Titanfall is still fairly new in terms of playerbase and so is not financially feasible in ZA.

          • Darren Peach

            November 3, 2016 at 10:48

            Nope. I still completely disagree with you. For example, just because South Africa may be a touch behind in terms of service delivery, It does not equate to us having to accept the fact that we are not entitled to the experience advertised.

            The tax example is a very bad one as we are dealing with a business that earns a profit which ultimately ends up in a group of shareholders bank accounts. As a consumer that paid for a product, I can’t be held accountable for something that is out of my hands, the delivery of service the company is responsible for. How and where they make their profit is irrelevant to the consumer.

            As a consumer that parted with my hard earned cash, I expect the experience to be flawless.

          • Raptor Rants

            November 3, 2016 at 10:55

            Ok I am not arguing with you about this. With all due respect you and I are seeing two different sides of the coin and neither of us will budge. So before there are words and anger let’s agree to disagree.

            PS: Regardless of that, I still refuse to support EA because of their dodgy business practices.

          • Darren Peach

            November 3, 2016 at 11:15

            I am starting to see that EA are just too greedy.

          • Raptor Rants

            November 3, 2016 at 11:19

            There we agree

          • Darren Peach

            November 3, 2016 at 11:31

            Still, Mass Effect will not be ignored……by me.

          • Darren Peach

            November 3, 2016 at 09:33

            That’s the problem with South Africans, Always expecting the least and compromising.

          • HvR

            November 3, 2016 at 09:36

            Since the amount of servers is directly relative to the player base in a country/region why would the corresponding costs be higher here than in other countries. Are server costs/hire a lot more?

          • Raptor Rants

            November 3, 2016 at 09:37

            bandwidth costs and server rack hosting costs proportionally more in ZA than other regions

          • HvR

            November 3, 2016 at 09:57

            Even commercial?

            I mean companies like Amazon host huge cloud services for other regions from within South Africa .

          • Raptor Rants

            November 3, 2016 at 10:39

            That’s actually an interesting concept. I wonder how a hosted cloud based server would work for things like this? Sadly I think all of Amazon’s cloud based stuff sits overseas (The physical servers they host the cloud stuff from)

          • HvR

            November 3, 2016 at 10:00

            Wait I think I found a lead ….

            Prima Interactive is the EA distributor for ZA.
            Prima Interactive was found by the current CEO Vikas GUPTA and Saurabh GUPTA

            #SA_games_market_capture_confirmed

          • Raptor Rants

            November 3, 2016 at 10:32

            *GASP*

            Also… are you freaking serious?

          • BakedBagel

            November 3, 2016 at 09:55

            In the past companies like MWEB and IS would purchase 1 or 2 servers to play on.

            Now? Its EA or nothing. So it is possible, yet the greed makes it somewhat impossible.

      • James Anderton

        November 3, 2016 at 09:24

        Yeah, you can’t exactly defy the laws of physics.

        Reply

        • Darren Peach

          November 3, 2016 at 09:26

          You can. Local dedicated servers……

          Reply

  14. Galbedir

    November 3, 2016 at 09:20

    Got it yesterday, thought I’d try it out a bit before bed…went to sleep at 3:30am, suffering at work today. Its so damn good! Haven’t enjoyed a campaign like this in ages, and the multiplayer is amazing…even though I came last most matches, I still like a rocketjumping, grapplehooking, powersliding badass!

    Reply

    • Geoffrey Tim

      November 3, 2016 at 10:51

      That SP is something special.

      Reply

      • TwinStripeUK

        November 3, 2016 at 10:55

        ‘Effect and Cause’ – this generation’s ‘We Don’t Go To Ravenholm’…

        Reply

      • Galbedir

        November 4, 2016 at 10:50

        Yeah, actually managed to put in a few more hours last night…SO GOOD! Easily one of my favorite Campaigns in recent years.

        Reply

  15. HairyEwok

    November 3, 2016 at 09:23

    Will they defend their price hikes as well?

    Reply

    • James Anderton

      November 3, 2016 at 09:23

      I definitely did not go through the Origin store for my purchase. Those prices are insane for PC titles.

      Reply

      • HairyEwok

        November 3, 2016 at 09:27

        It’s because of what EA’s doing that people turn to grey market sites to purchase their games. Shooting yourself in the foot was, and never will be a great idea.

        Reply

        • Bruce Bielie

          November 3, 2016 at 09:30

          I had to order the Sims 4 expansion pack for my wife via Takealot. Origin was just too damn expensive! It’s sad. EA must stop! But greed is the devils’ chocolate!

          Reply

    • Galbedir

      November 3, 2016 at 09:26

      Picked it up off http://www.cdkeys.com , for R665. Like R300 cheaper then on Origin.

      Reply

    • Dungeon of JJ

      November 3, 2016 at 09:39

      Their weak attempts at trying to justify those mean nothing. There’s really no reason to buy EA games in SA anymore.

      Reply

      • HairyEwok

        November 3, 2016 at 09:44

        There’s really no reason to buy EA games through Origin. Other markets still have way better prices for SA.

        Reply

        • Dungeon of JJ

          November 3, 2016 at 10:04

          Yea, but I still have to use Origin and I still support EA if I buy those games.

          Reply

    • Dane

      November 3, 2016 at 09:50

      Do you think that the people who decide these prices even play games? It’s a wonderful thing to be a gamer, it brings many strange people together, it’s fun and fulfilling among many other things. I understand that profit needs to be made but R1000 for a game is not in the spirit of the gaming community. It’s blatantly stealing money from a wonderful place.

      Reply

      • HairyEwok

        November 3, 2016 at 10:01

        Corporate monopoly people make the price. I get that, and the only way we can combat that is by not purchasing these games at such a crazy price. Nothing will hurt them more than hurting their lined pockets.

        Once again it falls on the gamer’s itself, pre-ordering and buying the game even though we moan about the prices won’t change anything.

        Reply

        • Dane

          November 3, 2016 at 10:18

          But for a long time player of a franchise, it’s not so easy. As someone who can barely afford the game, purchasing it makes me feel like an ‘addict’ rather than ‘enthusiast’ because I know I am being milked like a donkey.

          Reply

  16. V@mp

    November 3, 2016 at 10:55

    Such a shame, because I had a ton of fun with the campaign.

    Reply

    • TwinStripeUK

      November 3, 2016 at 11:45

      Agreed, and the multiplayer’s a lot better in the real thing that the Beta too (although not sure how good it would be in SA, where the majority of posters here are).

      Reply

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