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Ogre class of mechs revealed for Titanfall
A secondary type of mech to the Titans, the heavy-plated Ogre, was revealed for Titanfall during Spike's VGX show. Ogres are a little heavier and slower in movement, but when you're waging war with jetpacks and mechs falling from the sky, options are good! When questioned about a beta, Vince Zampella explained that Respawn Entertainment is "thinking about it." Respawn's debut effort for the new IP will be exclusive to the PC and Xbox platforms "for the life of the title." Titanfall's raging, acrobatic firefights will be open to all once the game titanfalls onto the PC, Xbox One and Xbox 360 on March 11. While that means there won't be a PS4 version of Titanfall, Respawn has clarified that they intend to bring other projects to the PS4.
Zampella: 'Of course' Respawn will have games on PS4, just not Titanfall
Deep breaths, everyone. Titanfall developer Respawn Entertainment will eventually make games for PS4, co-founder Vince Zampella tweeted. Yesterday publisher EA announced Titanfall would be exclusive for the life of the game to Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC, crushing the dreams of many prospective PS4 players. After this news, Zampella assured one fan that Respawn will develop PS4 games: "Of course we will, just not the first Titanfall." Respawn wasn't in control of the Microsoft exclusivity deal for Titanfall – that was all EA, Zampella said. "Always MS exclusive at launch, great partner and focus is good for a startup," he tweeted. "EA made a deal for the rest, we only found out recently =(." Keep in mind that one day, you'll be able to turn those frowns upside down, PS4 players.
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EA: Titanfall exclusive to Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC 'for life of the title'
Titanfall will launch solely on Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC, and won't ever come to PS4, EA CFO Blake Jorgensen said during EA's financial call today. "In the case of Titanfall, it's a brand new IP and it's exclusive only for the life of the title on Xbox One and Xbox 360 and PC," Jorgensen said. EA decided to push Titanfall into the next-gen launch window when it saw major titles such as Watch Dogs and The Crew were delayed. It's due out on Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC on March 11 – and nowhere else, ever.
Titanfall lands on March 11 for Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC
Titanfall, the mech mayhem shooter from Respawn Entertainment, is due out on March 11 for Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC in North America. Titanfall hits Europe on March 13. Pre-orders of Titanfall are live now in standard and collector's editions; check out your options here. The collector's edition runs $250 and includes an 18 inch statue with diorama and LED lighting, a 190-page art book and a schematic poster of the Atlas titan. Take a look at these goodies below. We got to play around with the mechs of Titanfall at Gamescom and had a grand ol' time.
PSA: Don't sign up for any Titanfall betas
At least not right now. Developer Respawn Entertainment warns that any sites offering a Titanfall beta are despicable shams and players should hop in a mech and run far, far away from them. "To help keep our fans safe from scammers, please note that all sites advertising Beta access are 100 percent scams," Respawn tweets. We understand the insatiable desire to play Titanfall as soon and as often as possible: We got our hands on it at Gamescom and had a blast playing around with its team-based combat, mechs, guns and jet packs. Just cool those jets, for now.
Co-Opinion: Titanfall
This is Co-Opinion, where two Joystiq editors play a game and discuss their experience. This edition focuses on a Gamescom 2013 hands-on session of Titanfall, from developer Respawn Entertainment. .portal-left { padding: 10px; background: #CCC; margin: 20px 0; min-height: 85px; } .portal-right { padding: 10px; margin: 20px 0; min-height: 85px; } .portal-right img { padding-left: 5px; } .portal-left img { padding-right: 5px; } Richard Mitchell: So, Alexander and I got to play the PC version of Respawn Entertainment's Titanfall at Gamescom. Let's get one thing out of the way right now: We both had an absolute blast. Personally, I was already very interested in the game, and I was keen to see if its blend of infantry mobility and large scale mech combat would really work. But you, Alexander, went into it without many expectations, right? Alexander Sliwinski: I had no clue what to expect. I'd obviously followed the news and background details on Titanfall, but I knew nothing about the feel of the game going into it. I knew it was a shooter and I knew it had mechs. However, I was not expecting the level of locomotion given to the Pilots and the diversity of experiences available in a match.
Overheard@Gamescom: Titanfall producer goes full Oprah
Titanfall has been generating a ton of buzz at Gamescom 2013. After playing the game (which deserves the praise it's getting so far), we asked about the countdown timer each player gets before they receive the notice that "Titanfall" is available, at which point they can call in one of the game's mechs to drop out of the sky. "Anything you do for your team will reduce your build time. So, anything you kill, any objective you complete reduces your build timer. It's not like a killstreak where you have to do well. Everyone will earn a Titan," said Titanfall Producer Drew McCoy, of developer Respawn Entertainment. "Titans for everyone! And you get a Titan! And you get a Titan! And you get a Titan!" Respawn is just doing Oprah's work.
Titanfall drops into Gamescom with a new trailer
Did you know there is a place on the human body that, when shot with a gun, will cause the person to fully explode? It's one of the many highlights in this Titanfall trailer from Gamescom.
Titanfall cleans up in E3 2013 Game Critics Awards
Respawn Entertainment's Titanfall won six awards at E3, besting all competition in every category it was nominated for in the E3 2013 Critics Awards. Titanfall is the first game to win six awards in the history of the E3 Critics Awards, snatching Best in Show, Best Original Game, Best Console Game, Best PC Game, Best Action Game and Best Online Multiplayer. Tearaway won Best Handheld/Mobile Game, while Supergiant Games' Transistor was honored with the Best Downloadable Game award. Need for Speed: Rivals drove off with Best Racing Game, NHL 14 snagged Best Sports Game and Best Social/Casual Game went to Fantasia. The rest of the awards can be seen in the full list past the break.
Titanfall dev explains why it's using Xbox Live Cloud
Respawn engineer Jon Shiring has posted a lengthy article explaining how Titanfall will benefit from using Microsoft's Xbox Live Cloud servers, contrasting the experiences found using player-hosted online games – featured in many console games today – versus expensive dedicated servers. Speaking with both Microsoft and Sony to find an inexpensive way to have "potentially hundreds-of-thousands of dedicated servers," Respawn found a solution with Microsoft's Azure servers. "The Xbox group came back to us with a way for us to run all of these Titanfall dedicated servers and that lets us push games with more server CPU and higher bandwidth, which lets us have a bigger world, more physics, lots of AI, and potentially a lot more than that," he wrote. "With the Xbox Live Cloud, we don't have to worry about estimating how many servers we'll need on launch day. We don't have to find ISPs all over the globe and rent servers from each one. We don't have to maintain the servers or copy new builds to every server," explained Shiring. "That lets us focus on things that make our game more fun. And best yet, Microsoft has datacenters all over the world, so everyone playing our game should have a consistent, low latency connection to their local datacenter." Recent changes to Xbox One's digital rights management plans aside, the company is going ahead with a $700 million expansion of its Iowa data center, which will be used to support Xbox Live and other services. To read all the technical and business reasons Respawn is going with Microsoft's Azure system, head on over to the company site.%Gallery-190953%
Titanfall goes behind the creative wall and finds more mechs
Beyond the wall of Titanfall's development lies – well, a bunch of mechs wreaking havoc on each other. It's pretty much the same as the scene on this side of Titanfall development, but the people over there have the power to make the mechs look like giant purple dinosaurs if they wanted.
Titanfall's structure and 'cloud computing' on Xbox One explained
While we were given a quick description of the cloud computing at work in the Xbox One version of Titanfall, we weren't able to get an in-depth answer. So we took to a back room at E3 and asked Respawn Entertainment's Fairfax "Mackey" McCandlish, lead designer on Titanfall, to elaborate. Essentially, cloud computing helps matchmaking, allowing dedicated servers to be spun up on a moment's notice to handle multiplayer matches and find you the most local option when searching for a game. McCandlish also answers other burning questions – like what exactly powers these titan mechs.
Titanfall's contrast between agility and agitation
There is a stark contrast between pilots and titans in Titanfall, the new multiplayer-centric shooter from Respawn Entertainment. As a footsoldier, players are mice – hard to hit and scurrying from one crumbled hovel to the next. The titans stand tall, lumbering death dealers in a constant sense of agitation, ever at the ready and percolating with malevolent intent. It makes for a very interesting multiplayer dynamic, adding to the overall sensory overload and chaos of multiplayer in Titanfall.%Gallery-190953%
Titanfall will have dedicated servers
Following a demonstration of Titanfall at E3, EA's Craig Owens confirmed that the game will have dedicated servers on all platforms – PC, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. "We're using Microsoft's cloud compute initiative to run all our servers for it, so it's all running on dedicated servers," Owens said. "We'll spin up and spin down servers as necessary, and it'll do all the AI hosting and physics calculations and all matchmaking and all of that good stuff. It's all dedicated servers, all the time." Owens also confirmed the PC version would feature dedicated servers.
Seen@E3: One of those Titanfall mechs
Standing watch over EA's E3 press conference at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles was a massive mech from Titanfall. It was kind of cool until we realized its eye was moving, at which point it became terrifying. See it for yourself after the break.
Titanfall assembles multiplayer footage at E3
During EA's E3 keynote presentation, the first multiplayer footage of Respawn Entertainment's Titanfall was shown. A dilapidated town played host to the match, where mechs and men alike can be seen battling over three objectives. Also, jetpacking aplenty!%Gallery-190953%
Titanfall is coming Spring 2014 to Xbox One [Update: Xbox 360, PC confirmed]
Update: Despite Spencer's assertion that Titanfall is "exclusive," a new post on Xbox Wire shows the game is also coming to Xbox 360 and PC in addition to Xbox One. Original post: During the Microsoft's Xbox One event at E3, it was revealed that Titanfall is an Xbox One exclusive by Microsoft Studios head Phil Spencer. The shooter comes from Respawn Entertainment, the outfit from former Infinity Ward head honchos Vince Zampanella and Jason West. Back in March, co-founder Jason West left the company. Titanfall's brief trailer showed a heavy emphasis on war (surprise!) in a futuristic setting with mechs and jetpacks. CEO of Respawn Entertainment, Vince Zampella, took to the stage following the trailer and revealed the Respawn's partnership with Microsoft prior to some multiplayer footage of a capture-type mode. Titanfall will launch in the spring of 2014.
Respawn Entertainment's 'Titanfall' revealed
The cover of the latest Game Informer has leaked on Google Play, as noted by NeoGaf, revealing Respawn Entertainment's Titanfall. Respawn, the studio formed by former Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vince Zampella, was expected to reveal the game on the cover next week during E3. The article within the issue (no longer accessible) notes the cloud-based game is for Xbox One and PC. A 360 version is being developed outside of Respawn. There is reportedly mention of a Spring 2014 release window.
Rumor: Respawn game exclusive to next Xbox
The first game from Respawn Entertainment, the studio formed by former Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vince Zampella, is reportedly exclusive to the next-generation Xbox. According to Kotaku sources, Microsoft's coup keeps the unannounced game off Sony and Nintendo platforms. One source told the site there'll also be an Xbox 360 version.One of Kotaku's sources says Respawn's game is, surprise surprise, a multiplayer shooter, with battles featuring giant mechanical walkers called Titans - it was recently revealed Respawn trademarked the term 'Titan.'Whatever it is, Respawn's game is under EA's co-publishing Partners program. Despite the label reportedly shuttering, the studio says everything's going "fine" for its next game. Presumably in response to Kotaku's story, the studio's official account tweeted "Wow! Lots of speculation tonight. Great to see excitement about our project but you'll all have to wait for E3 for details."So... not May 21, then? Having said that, there's no denial there either. In any case, we've reached out to Respawn for comment.
Report: EA Partners label to close
EA is reportedly shuttering its third-party co-publishing Partners label, responsible for bringing out the likes of the Crysis series, Shadows of the Damned, Alice: Madness Returns, Bulletstorm, Brutal Legend, and the Rock Band series among many others.According to Game Informer, who note "multiple anonymous sources close to the matter," the Partners label will be terminated "soon." Game Informer's sources say the purported closure shouldn't affect Insomniac's Fuse and Respawn Entertainment's unannounced project being released, despite both games being tied to the label.The report follows news of widespread layoffs at EA earlier this month, as well as the apparent retirement of its Playfish line. There are also reports of the EA Mobile Brazil and BioWare Social studios closing, as well as one in based in London, UK.We've reached out to EA for comment.
