EA says new 'premium' Titanfall coming this year

Update: In its quarterly earnings call today, EA said that it has a new "premium" Titanfall something coming this year. Premium, in this case, rules out another free-to-play experience.

Here's what EA's Andrew Wilson said: "While I don't have more to share with the particulars of what we have coming from Titanfall, Respawn are a tremendously creative team. They always anticipated that Apex Legends would be a spectacular game in the battle royale genre, and that they'd use that as a ramp point to deliver a truly creative take on what Titanfall is in a premium context later on in the year."

Original story follows.

Respawn Entertainment took the wraps off the Titanfall-set battle royale Apex Legends yesterday, and it turned out to be really good. It is not, however, Titanfall 3, which in the wake of the unexpectedly excellent Titanfall 2 is something that fans of more conventional shooters (like myself) would really like to hear about.   

Yesterday, Apex Legends lead producer Drew McCoy poured cold water on those hot hopes when he said that despite what you may have heard, Respawn is not making Titanfall 3. Today, however, Respawn CEO Vince Zampella said this: 

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Before anyone gets too excited, bear in mind that "more Titanfall" could refer to just about anything related to the series. It could be a mobile game, or a mode for Apex Legends, or a comic book; it could be The Apex Scrolls, a new digital card game where you put tiny cards inside of big cards. (Full credit to Steven and James for that idea.) The only thing we can say for certain is that it is not the "realistic VR war game" Respawn announced in 2017: One of Zampella's followers asked about that and he replied with a resounding, "No!"

Wild speculation is fun, but I would not (like, really not) bet the farm on a surprise announcement about Titanfall 3 coming out for the holidays. But an announcement that Titanfall 3 is coming sometime? That, I could see: Electronic Arts said in an October 2018 earnings call that Respawn has multiple games in development: EA CFO Blake Jorgensen said at the time that "you should assume that there will be some things that we haven't announced that come out later in the year when we go to give guidance for next year."

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.