Titanfall Fans Mourn Canceled Extraction Shooter: Is This the End for Titanfall 3?

Fans of the beloved Titanfall series were hit with a wave of disappointment upon learning that EA has canceled yet another incubation project at Respawn Entertainment. Adding to the frustration, the company also laid off numerous individuals across its incubation, Apex Legends, Star Wars: Jedi, and EA Experience teams. The news was first reported by Bloomberg, which revealed that the canceled game, codenamed R7, was envisioned as an extraction shooter set within the expansive Titanfall universe. Despite this not being the long-awaited Titanfall 3 sequel, the absence of a follow-up to the much-loved Titanfall 2, now nearly a decade old, has left fans in dismay.

"I just fell to my knees at Walmart," said one devastated player, while another simply wrote: "I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE."

However, not all fans see the cancellation as a negative outcome. Some believe that an extraction shooter in the Titanfall universe might have failed, potentially harming the franchise irreparably.

"Best thing that could've happened as far as the continued existence of this franchise is concerned," posited one user on Reddit. "A Titanfall extraction shooter would probably flop and the c-suite executives would say 'see, the people just don't like Titanfall anymore,' instead of the obvious reason being nobody asked for a Titanfall XTS."

"I’m fine with this one being canceled," responded another, followed by: "Extraction shooter lmao. Good riddance."

"So sick and tired of 'extraction shooters'. They're so formulaic and boring. I don't want to loot a bunch of useless stuff and camp in an attic or sit in a bush for 20 minutes or risk getting shot moving through big open fields. Give me quick matches, wallrunning, and titans blastin'," suggested a passionate fan.

"Got sad. Read extraction shooter. Was literally okay," summarized another.

The layoffs at Respawn affected around 100 jobs, including roles in development, publishing, and QA for Apex Legends, as well as smaller teams working on the Jedi project and two canceled incubation efforts, one of which was reported on in March, and the other believed to be the extraction shooter in the Titanfall universe.

These cuts are part of a series of layoffs at EA over recent years. Earlier this year, EA restructured BioWare, moving developers to other projects and laying off others. The company also eliminated 50 jobs at BioWare in 2023 and an unknown number more at Codemasters. In 2024, a larger restructuring resulted in 670 workers being laid off company-wide, including around two dozen workers at Respawn.

In 2023, it was revealed that Respawn Entertainment had invested significant effort into developing Titanfall 3 for approximately 10 months before shifting focus to Apex Legends. Mohammad Alavi, who transitioned to the role of narrative lead designer on Titanfall 3, shared insights with The Burnettwork about the project's progress.

“Titanfall 2 came out, did what it did, and we were like, ‘Okay, we’re gonna make Titanfall 3,’ and we worked on Titanfall 3 for about 10 months, right? In earnest, right?" Alavi explained. "We had new tech for it, we had multiple missions going, we had a first playable, which was on par to be just as good if not better than whatever we had before, right? But I’ll make this clear: incrementally better, it wasn’t revolutionary. And that’s the key thing, right?

“And we were feeling pretty decent about it, but not the same feeling as Titanfall 2 where we were making something revolutionary, y’know what I mean?”

Alavi cited challenges in refining the multiplayer experience, which was loved by a dedicated but small audience, as a significant hurdle. "But the people who love Titanfall 2 multiplayer is a very small number of people. And most people play Titanfall 2 multiplayer and think it’s really good, but it’s just too much. It’s cranked up to 11, and they burn out a bit fast. And they’re like, ‘That was a great multiplayer, that’s not something I continually play a year, two years,’ right?"

Additionally, the rise of the Battle Royale genre, particularly with the release of PUBG in 2017, played a crucial role in the decision to pivot away from Titanfall 3. "So we were trying to fix that. We were trying to fix that from Titanfall 1 to 2, trying to fix it from Titanfall 2 to 3, the multiplayer team was just dying. And then PUBG came out."

Respawn developers found themselves more captivated by a Battle Royale map using Titanfall 3 classes than their ongoing multiplayer efforts. This led to the realization that abandoning Titanfall 3 in favor of a Battle Royale game could yield remarkable results.

“And at the time, I had just literally become [the] narrative lead designer on Titanfall 3. I had just pitched the story, the whole game, that me and Manny [Hagopian] had come up with. We made this big presentation and then we went off at break, and came back from break, and we talked about it and we were like, ‘Yeah, we need to pivot. And we need to go make this game.’

“We literally canceled Titanfall 3 ourselves ’cause we were like, ‘We can make this game, and it’s going to be Titanfall 2 plus a little bit better, or we can make this thing, which is clearly amazing.’

“And don’t get me wrong, I will always miss having another Titanfall. I love that game. Titanfall 2 is my most crowning achievement, but it was the right call. That is a crazy cut. Such a crazy cut that EA didn’t even know about it for another six months until we had a prototype up and running that we could show them!”