Titanfall 3 was in development for 10 months before it was cancelled, says developer

There are series that barely deserve a sequel and then there are series that are so good that fans cry out for more. One example of the latter is the neglected Titanfall.

Developed by Respawn Entertainment, the original Titanfall was released back in 2014 for PC, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. Titanfall would garner respectable scores in the 80s on Metacritic, praised for its high-octane mech multiplayer action.

However, the issue with the original Titanfall is that it was multiplayer only with no single-player campaign. Sure, the multiplayer was fun, but without some additional content, it was always going to be a struggle to keep players engaged for the long term, especially before a time when the live-service era truly kicked off on console. So when Titanfall 2 arrived in 2016, it more than delivered. Not only did it expand upon its multiplayer to make it bigger and better, but it included a quite-brilliant single-player campaign which told an emotional story between protagonist Jack Cooper and his Titan BT-7274. Seriously, if you’ve never played Titanfall 2 before, it’s cheap as chips, so go play it now. You won’t regret it.

Anyway, let’s get back on topic. Titanfall 2 would earn Metacritic scores as high as 89 and being so critically acclaimed, fans naturally called for a third game. Sadly, despite endless leaks and rumours, to this very day, fans are still left waiting for Titanfall 3. Instead, the developers and publisher EA focused on the free-to-play battle royale Apex Legends, which just so happens to be set in the Titanfall universe.

EA deemed Titanfall 2 a commercial flop, despite shifting a reported four million copies by 2017. The apparent disappointing sales are believed to be a key reason why the series has seemingly been abandoned. Yet when you release Titanfall 2 in between Battlefield 1 and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, any game is likely to struggle. What’s more, Battlefield 1 is an EA title, so why did it launch the game so close to Titanfall 2?

Recently, Respawn Entertainment CEO Vince Zampella said that he’d love to see Titanfall 3 one day. Sadly, as we all know, especially in the video game industry, talk is cheap. Many have suspected that Titanfall 3 was at some point in development, which makes the whole process more painful for fans. Well, as reported by Insider Gaming (via The Burnettwork), to add to our woes, a former developer of Respawn Entertainment claims that Titanfall 3 was in development for 10 months before the decision was made to cancel the project. Mohammad Alavi, the ex-developer in question, claims that we nearly got the trilogy that fans have been desperate to see.

“You want to hear a crazy cut story? Titanfall 3… Titanfall 2, y’know, came out, did what it did, and we were like, 'Okay, we’re gonna make Titanfall 3,' and we worked on Titanfall 3 for… ten months, right?” said Alavi. However, Alavi said that the development team struggled to make the third game revolutionary following in the shadow of Titanfall 2. Furthermore, there were concerns with the multiplayer aspect and in particular, keeping players engaged for years to come.

Then with the arrival of PUBG and the rise of the battle royale genre, the team created a concept map with 'Titanfall 3 classes'. This project would soon morph into Apex Legends (but without the mechs). Sure, Apex Legends continues to be a success in its genre, but until that third Titanfall arrives, a great big gaping hole will remain until we see our beloved mechs once more.