Respawn has created a bit of a stir regarding the status of Titanfall 3 following mixed messages about the title from within Respawn itself.
It started with an livestream with Respawn community coordinator Jason Garza, who was asked a question about the status of Titanfall 3.
He responded with the following:
“Don’t get your hopes up, man. I’ve said this before. We don’t have anything in [the] works. There’s nothing. There’s nothing there. We’ve got too many other games in the works right now.”
News sites like Dexerto and IGN naturally ran with the story, with information straight from the source. As the community naturally reacted to the news of the game’s demise, Respawn issued a tweet blaming media outlets for covering what they said and daring to attribute it as an official source.
Contrary to what some folks are reporting, Titanfall is the very core of our DNA.
Who knows what the future holds…
— Respawn (@Respawn) September 23, 2021
“Contrary to what some folks are reporting, Titanfall is the very core of our DNA”, the statement reads. “Who knows what the future holds…”.
The Problem With This Response
There’s plenty wrong with how Respawn is handling this situation. The most obvious one is the blame game- rather than admitting the news came from one of their own employees, they’re playing up the sentiment that journalists had somehow made up this story.
Look, part of the game journalist job is being told you’re a hack every chance you get- we get enough flak from readers on a regular basis, the last thing we need is developers jumping on the bandwagon especially with something as dear to people’s hearts as Titanfall 3.
Fanbyte Journalist MH Williams echoed this sentiment too, reminding Respawn that they’re the source of this news story
“Again, s’all good. Titanfall in the DNA, maybe you got something in the works. But don’t start with “Contrary to what some folks are reporting,” like you’re debunking some unsourced rumor. You put the onus on your guy”, he writes.
The other problem is the continued status of Titanfall 3. Previously, it was largely suspected that due to the overwhelming popularity of Apex Legends, Titanfall 3 had been shelved for good.
While Respawn has always been quick to deny the end of Titanfall 3, they’ve also been fairly coy about it as well, leading the public into this feeding frenzy from anything remotely mentioning Titanfall 3.