The Titanfall release date is coming up on March 11 and already Respawn Entertainment has already shut down the Titanfall beta. So here’s what you need to know for the launch of the Titanfall Xbox One and PC version… and whether or not a Titanfall PlayStation 4 version will ever hit the ground.
In a related report by The Inquisitr , although the Xbox One vs PS4 is currently being won by Sony , some wonder if Titanfall might reverse that trend in the short term. Microsoft is putting a lot of stock in the game based upon the release of the Xbox One Titanfall bundle , which essentially makes the game free if you haven’t already bought a Xbone. Unfortunately, despite the game being hyped endlessly, any hopes of a Titanfall 1080p 60FPS experience were dashed when Microsoft began explaining away the “tradeoffs.” Even the Titanfall beta was experiencing server issues so the beta was extended, although obviously the goal was to squash every bug before it went live on March 11 so that’s a good thing.
On March 10, over in Texas Microsoft is hosting the official Xbox One Titanfall launch party, which will begin in the morning and run to midnight. Attendance will be on a first-come, first-served basis, but those who follow Major Nelson and Xbox on Twitter have a chance and it’s also possible to watch a live stream via the official Xbox Twitch channel .
All in all, Titanfall is composed of 14 maps excluding the training ground. A Titanfall DLC hasn’t been announced yet but we should expect more maps coming down the pipeline.
Titanfall Xbox One
The game can be purchased as either a digital download or via the old disc. Based upon benchmarks of the Xbox One hard drive it’s possible that the digital download may load slightly faster. The negative is that it will consume even more of the 500GB HD, although Respawn has already said even the disc version will consume about 20 GB. So the benefit of the digital version is that you won’t have to swap discs for a quick match.
Titanfall PC
The Titanfall PC version will definitely be the best way to experience the game from a graphics perspective. Respawn also designed the game to be played with controllers and has provided aim-assist in order to keep up with the mouse and keyboard players.
Titanfall Minimum Hardware Requirements: 64-bit Windows 7, 8, 8.1 (it will not work on 32-bit Windows 7) AMD Athlon X2 2.8GHz or Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz 4GB RAM 512GB VRAM, Radeon HD 4770 or GeForce 8800GT
But based upon Titanfall benchmarks you’ll realistically need either a Nvidia GTX 760 or a AMD Radeon 7870 combined with a decent quad or higher CPU in order to prevent the minimum framerate from dropping much lower than 30 FPS.
Titanfall Xbox 360
The Titanfall Xbox 360 version hasn’t really seen the light of day so it’s difficult to comment on it. We do know this version’s Titanfall release date has been delayed to March 28 and is being ported by Bluepoint Games. Unfortunately, to a certain extent it’s speculated the graphics of Titanfall may have been limited in order for the game to function at all on older platforms.
Titanfall PS4
At this point Electronic Art has pretty much made Titanfall a Microsoft exclusive. But PlayStation 4 sales figures continue to outpace the Xbox One so they have to be considering the impact this will have on the game sales. Electronic Arts CFO Blake Jorgensen once commented on the the lack of a PS4 Titanfall port :
“That’s a process that’s been done through the industry for many years. There are lots of single-platform titles. Obviously, you work with the first-parties to make sure the economics make sense for all sides, and we made that decision on Titanfall. We’re trying to make sure that we’ve developed a great relationship with them. We helped them on marketing, we helped them on development where they need it. And we try to maintain a strong partnership with them over time.”
People have also checked out the files of the PC version of the game and they’ve found references to the PS3 and the PS4, so it’s possible those ports were already in the works at one point. Although it’s pure speculation, some analysts expect the Titanfall PlayStation 4 port to be inevitable and may follow the path set by the Mass Effect series, which launched first on the Xbox 360 but then was released on the PS3 almost a year later.
For example, Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter was asked about Titanfall 2 being a Xbox One exclusive and his answer was revealing:
“I think this might be the last exclusive you see for a long long time that’s third party. I think [EA], had they known at the time when they made they made the decision to go exclusive Xbox, had they known that the Xbox One was going to be $100 more than the PS4 I think they wouldn’t have done it. I think that they believe that Microsoft was going to kick Sony’s butt this cycle. I am quoting John Riccitiello (former EA CEO) back in 2012 who told me that he thought that Microsoft was going to eat Sony’s lunch the next cycle. But we all thought so because we thought that Xbox 360 had a large, loyal install base and multiplayer and we thought that Sony would price [the PS4] about the same as the Xbox, but we didn’t think Xbox One would be $500…. They made a mistake and they priced too high and I think that caught everybody by surprise. So I haven’t talked to John Riccitiello about this since, but it’s pretty clear that at a $100 price advantage Sony is going to beat out Xbox until the price is the same.”
Regardless, EA has already stated in the past that having Titanfall 2 for the PS4 is not out of the question, so that isn’t exactly news. So at this point it’s possible we may see a Titanfall PS4 port six months to a year down the road, or even not at all, but it’s obvious EA doesn’t want to stomp on Microsoft’s toes even if the decision costs them millions in the short term.
Titanfall Early Reviews
So, in the end, is the Titanfall gameplay any good? It’s been called a Call Of Duty killer for a good reason. When CoD developer Infinity Ward and Activision started butting heads, the two heads of the company left with 38 other employees, which ended up being about half of the staff for Respawn Entertainment.
So many gameplay elements are borrowed from Call Of Duty. For example, kill streaks are replaced by the Titans themselves. The tactical ability works pretty much like a CoD perk. The pacing of the game is also somewhat familiar, although the ability to traverse the maps is greatly amped up by wall walking and jetpacks. The major difference is that matches are limited to six on six but gameplay is augmented with up to 32 AI combatants as well as a story-based multiplayer campaign mode.
Most beta previews seem to think the game is a blast and one-ups the Call Of Duty formula by a large margin. But while Forbes agrees with that assessment they don’t believe Titanfall is a CoD “killer” per se. Instead, they point out how the next Call Of Duty is due for the fall of 2014, which means many gamers might be getting tired of Titanfall and desire a newer experience.
They also say “competition drives innovation,” so expect the next Call Of Duty to rise up to the challenge if Activision has anything to say about it. It’s possible the publisher heads are thinking the same since they’ve already announced that future Call Of Duty sequels will be developed by three developers , not just two, which gives each an extra year to tweak and polish the final product.
What do you think about Titanfall so far?