EA and Respawn will release ‘premium’ content around Titanfall later this year
Electronic Arts announced in the publication of its quarterly results that Respawn Entertainment, the developer that recently released the battle royale game Apex Legends, will come with a ‘premium’ Titanfall experience later this year.
Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson declined to comment on what players can expect from Titanfall, but said Respawn always “had an expectation that Apex Legends would be used as a starting point for a truly creative version later this year.” deliver what Titanfall is in a premium context,” PC Gamer wrote based on his statements.
Previously, Vince Zampella, the CEO of Respawn, already preceded Wilson with the hinting at new Titanfall content: ‘We are working on more Titanfall for later this year. We love to experiment in this crazy universe.” Given the statements by Respawn producer Drew McCoy, who indicated at the release of Apex Legends that Titanfall 3 is not in development, this could be another spin-off of Titanfall, following Apex Legends. But it could also be a mobile game, or perhaps new content for Apex Legends. Zampella only clarified that it not a vr game.
Wilson said in the release of the quarterly results that it was a “difficult quarter for EA and that the company “didn’t perform in line with its own expectations.” EA CFO Blake Jorgensen says FIFA is excelling as a “robust franchise in a tumultuous year in the video game industry.” According to Blake, FIFA 19 has sold 20 million copies to date and FIFA Ultimate Team had its best quarter ever, although he does not mention specific numbers. Furthermore, he says that EA is looking forward to “growing Apex Legends and related Titanfall experiences,” new Plants vs. Zombies and Need for Speed titles and to add Star Was Jedi: Fallen Order to the fall sports titles. The publisher will also release Anthem on February 22.
Despite Wilson’s comments, EA hadn’t had a bad quarter on paper. The company posted higher revenues to $1.29 billion, compared to $1.16 billion in the last quarter of 2017. It also made a profit of $262 million, compared to a loss of $186 million a year earlier in the same period.
EA also commented on Battlefield V, which was released in November last year. Andrew Wilson says the shooter was designed from the start to be a long-term live service and noted in August last year that “more time was needed.” to make final tweaks to core gameplay to meet the full potential of a live service.” Based on that, EA decided to push the release date, Wilson said. According to him, that meant that the release followed in a busy part of the year. He also says that before the release it was chosen to add single player in favor of a battle royale mode. As a result of these decisions, Battlefield V’s sales expectations have not been met, Wilson said.