What Respawn And Titanfall Can Teach The Industry About Next-Gen Development

Polygon "It’s amazing what you can put together when you’re leaving the developer and publisher of some of the most successful first-person shooters in the industry’s history."

[Hellsvacancy]

Teach? come on Titanfall isn't doing anything new, it's just mech vs mech with some wall jumping players on the ground

6 vs 6 on small maps with AI enemies is sooooooo revolutionary

Edit: I just noticed it's a Lolygon article, no sh!t they're hyping a XB1 game "the developer and publisher of some of the most successful first-person shooters in the industry’s history" lol

Time will show, 6 months from Titanfall will be forgotten about (much like Ryse) Destiny will come out and take a huge amount of Titanfall players

[razrye]

Was gonna say something like that myself but decided not to because am sure that it will be marked as trolling. The mods here have a hard on for me lol.

[Hellsvacancy]

What's wrong with sharing my opinion, i'm not "trolling" or looking for agrees/bubbles

I disagree with the author and have pointed out why, that's not trolling

[OiNioB]

Read the Article :/,

The author states how the game is good for having no micro-transactions and focusing on a MP only approach while not worrying about the pressure of stock holders.

Allowing the Devs to focus on and create the game they want rather then going for that $.

It also states how this is a positive for future games like The Order 1886 as well, which focuses on making a great single player experience.

[IcyEyes]

nvm

[thezeldadoth]

"some mech vs mech with some players on the ground" you could simplify any game like that to help your argument, but its still a poor argument.

Halo is just some red vs blue dudes running around shooting. cod is just some dudes running around. BF4 is just 64 people shooting randomly with no tactics. mario is just a game where you jump on shit. your (much like ryse) comment clearly paints you as a pathetic sony fanboy who is afraid of good games on other platforms

[Hellsvacancy]

Yeah your right, not aboot the " pathetic sony fanboy" I can't be that much of a fanboy because i've yet to even buy a PS4

As for the rest of your comment, the games you've pointed out are not trying to be more than what they are, TitanFall is being touted to be some kind of ground breaking, revolutionary, never played before type of game, although it's not

Like the author said "What Respawn And Titanfall Can Teach The Industry About Next-Gen Development" like other developers need teaching anything from Respawn

[lolCHILLbro]

You havent played the game have you? or i guess INFAMOUS is doing many great new things right? bro the control and feel and fuidity of everything from jumping and wallrunning on anything to jumping on a Titans back without pressing 1 button is way more than most FPS's are doing these days, why must we dismiss and criticize games that are trying to breath new life into thier respected genres and trying something new just because of some made up pathetic fanboy defence mechanism based solely on insecurity and ignorance? i guess some people just arent gamers at heart........... sad

[cyguration]

What? WHAT?!

Titanfall is Brink + Blacklight. There's nothing you can do in Titanfall you can't do in those two games. Where have you been?

[Hellsvacancy]

Oh dear, I don't think i've ever once praised inFamous, I don't particularly like the games, same for goes for Uncharted (LOVED TLOU)

By your logic i'm just a hater because i'm also showing no love (nor anyone else for that fact) for the new Wolfenstein game, maybe that's because it looks like generic crap, Titanfalls into that category

I'm 30 years old this year, been gaming since i was 7 or 8, i've played MANY games, by now my brain KNOWS what it likes the looks of and what it doesn't, Titanfall looks to be a game I would get bored of within a month, the multiplayer for TLOU only lasted me 2-3 months before I got bored and moved on

Not allowed opinions in the internet are we without upsetting some soppy mofo

[razrye]

You have misunderstood me. I know that it isn't a trolling comment. I agree with it. It's just that if I write anything even remotely against anything to do ms I get marked as trolling.

[bennissimo]

In its alpha build, Titanfall was one of the most enjoyable game experiences I've had on any platform in a very, very long time.

Skipping it is your loss.

[SasukeX16]

Not for people who don't like it at all.

[tuglu_pati]

funny how is just the usual Sony enthusiast saying the game isn't doing anything new. I guess is a N$G regular day.

[Magicite]

Titanfall is more like something between 6th and 7th gen.

[maniacmayhem]

What does the gameplay of Titanfall have anything to do with Respawn teaching the industry how development should be done?

The article is talking about how Respwan didn't have to compromise their vision of the game. They made exactly the game they wanted, the author also commends them on making a game without microtransactions something this team could have implemented easy. Something common to EA and no doubt EA would have loved to have in this game.

The author also commends the devs of Order:1886 for also focusing on their own vision of the game.

Never did this article talk about the game being revolutionary. So why bring in gameplay which has been repeatedly discussed and debated in other on topic articles?

This is why so many people on this site get so much flack. A lot of people instantly go into attack mode for a game they have no interest in without reading the actual article.

[NaViTo]

LOL with the paid articles!

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[lets_go_gunners]

Just try to be different without changing the core shooter gameplay. I really like titanfall, got the beta on my pc not on my xbox one but I'm really enjoying it. Even though I still think the smart pistol is annoying. Gonna buy maybe not day 1 but surely.

[darksky]

I guess they can teach the industry how NOT to develop for next gen...

[Debaitable]

I'm still waiting for them teach me on why having A.I. is better than having human players

[lolCHILLbro]

to add life and immersion to the world and the enviroment they are creating?

[Debaitable]

There's plenty of videos up now and in nearly every video I've seen when the player sees the A.I., the A.I. doesn't even shoot and gives a blank stare. What kind of immersion do you get out of that? I'll still end up buying it for PC but I was told to wait and see about the A.I. I waited. I saw. I'm disappointed.

Not every games has to be BF4 size but they could of made maps catering to 8v8 or 10v10 so you encounter more human players than A.I.

[Biggest]

Add life by adding lifeless nothings? That's doesn't make much sense.

[PSVita]

Polygon commenting on a MS exclusive...

[Kivespussi]

How is titanfall going to teach anythig? It's not really revolutionary by any aspect. It's going to be just another fps. Will it be any good? Probably but nothing revolutionary about it

[imt558]

WTF Polygon!???

[TrollBusterPro]

Aww, look, the troll imt558 is back! What happened? Why did you stop copying and pasting about Titanfall's textures not changing in every article? Did you get put in your place when the truth came out that the beta did in fact look better?

[imt558]

How much better? 400% textures improvement? Yeah, right. Even some PS2 games had better textures.

[TrollBusterPro]

Good backtracking.

[Codey47]

So Activision Respawned make a game on a last gen engine(Not to take anything away from VaLVe, of course..cus they really do make games that people want to play)

And they think they've revolutionis(z)ed gaming and paved the way for ages to come.

Activision Respawned and Microsoft deserve each other..their arrogance will come back ten fold.

[bennissimo]

Your life must be miserable for you to harbor such resentment for people you've never met.

[Roccetarius]

Honestly, what can they teach? They're not even developing an exclusively next-gen title.

[elm]

Their making a average looking cod clone with 12 players and in a low resolution on a underpowered device.
I'm sure the best developers in the world need a lesson from them.
Oh and why don't Polygon just have a rename to The Xbox Blog.

[sorane]

"Their making a average looking cod clone"

Could be worse. They could have made a Killzone clone, but I think they actually wanted people to play this game online.

"Oh and why don't Polygon just have a rename to The Xbox Blog."

Why don't you change your name to "biggestn4gtroll"? Seriously your comment history speaks for itself.

[TrollBusterPro]

elm - Could you at least try to learn the difference between "their" and "they're"? I mean, really, you should have in pre-k... I understand that you're just trolling, but could you possibly do it without looking like a slow 10 year old?

[sAVAge_bEaST]

Lolygon, the Micro$oft mouth piece. Headline and 1st paragraph, is all I need to read. -to get the jist/spin/hype.

[SasukeX16]

Hoops

[stuna1]

The hype behind this game is sending a very garbled message! Although many say fun to play, and in my opinion it looks fun to play. It promotes a sense of handholding in iits gameplay! I've been to different sites, where the same opinions are being expessed, "I have never been very good at competitive multiplayer games, but I have been consistantly been able to rank at the top or, second place slots on the leaderboards!"

Now that's not bad in and of itself, but I does open the doors to question; Am I actually good at this game or, is this just the setup of the machanics built inherently into the gameplay? How do I actually know when I am making marked improvements in how I am playing the game?

The comments I've heard so far lend truth to the idea that TitanFall is truly casualising the FPS genre with added Mechs. That may actually be the goal of Respawm to attract more casual players to the game! But the burning question that remains is......where does this leave the truly hardcore competitive multiplayer FPS gamer!? Sure they might start out playing TitanFall, but truthfully everyone knows that this title will not keep them pre-occupied for long, because the competitiveness of the game is watered-down.

[Allsystemgamer]

It's really fun but there isn't anything new. Graphically outdated. The ai is really dumb. But the gameplay is really fun. Have the beta on PC. I wouldn't call it "next gen" but it's a great game.

[blahblah123]

Game is pretty obvious Source driven. It runs constant, but not really impressive. Two days grinding out the Beta on PC. Max settings 2560x1600 and it looks pretty last-gen.

Folks, it's a somewhat good shooter, but absolutely nothing to hype over. Game could clearly run on PS3 and 360 with no issues. Stop hyping it. Titanfall is a very well-made but pretty generic shooter.

[Allsystemgamer]

It's fun but nothing to write home about in terms of innovation. It's not a system seller but it's great fun if you can play it.

[RegorL]

"There are no scripted moments, no thrill-ride style offline portion of the game that we’re used to from Battlefield and Call of Duty titles."

And there is no single player
And no destruction.
=> No reason to script anything!

[CharlesSwann]

Look at title and then see "polygon". I get it.

[maniacmayhem]

Wow, some of these comments above me are just .... wow.

Its makes it all the more puzzling (and hilarious) reading most of these comments after I have read the actual story.

[Godmars290]

In what way?

Rather than say that TF is a good game, or even a great if not the greatest game ever made, the author takes that one step too far proclaiming that a lesson can be taught.

Nevermaind that anything Polygon has to say will always come under question because of the money they took from MS as they now heap praise on an XB1 exclusive.

[Subaruwrx]

The argument that the author uses that taking the cash from MS allows respawn to focus on the X1 and the pc is bs. The X1 and the PS4 have similar architecture so it wouldn't have been that difficult to develop the game for both platforms. Respawn did not make the decision to develop for X1 and PC only, EA did. EA took the cash for business reasons that have nothing to do with the developers focus.

[maniacmayhem]

@Mars

The article has nothing to do with the gameplay. It is talking about Respawn's development style of the game. The author is saying that instead of caving in to marketing and big publisher pressures and following the FPS standard, Respawn set out to make the game THEY wanted.

This is exactly what I am saying about the comments in this article. The author never claims its the greatest game ever.

Polygon has given Fable: Anniversary a 5, Halo: Spartan Assault a 4 and Max; Curse of the Brotherhood a 6, I hardly call those reviews praise from payoff money. Time to stop with this nonsense of MS paying off websites whenever a favored review comes in. So far Kotaku, Cnet, VGChartz, Forbes, Examiner and IGN have all been accused from members of this site of taking some sort of MS payoff.

@Subaruwrx
Respawn knew they were making an exclusive for Xbox One.

http://www.purexbox.com/new...

http://www.gamespot.com/art...

http://venturebeat.com/2013...

These are articles of rumors of Respawn developing an exclusives for MS's Xbox 720. As you can see this was a rumor well before the reveal of Xbox One.

[Godmars290]

The quality of the game ties directly into its production. If at this point in the beta test bugs and general flaws were showing up they'd be getting flayed and rightly so. But instead, since everything has been going well, their methods should be taken as Gospel by others. That is the gist of the article.

And the Polygon problem isn't that they often review MS titles well, but when there's a good game they praise it. That they took a large sum of money from a specific source before they really off the ground or existed as a name.

[BcozoftheImplication]

They can teach sweet f**k all & that's being honest!!

[jgrigs09]

Since sony fanboys come on here and trash talk it. I guess I'll put in my two cents. The Last Of us was over rated, it wasn't that good. Thank you and good bye

[Allsystemgamer]

Your opinion =\= fact. Thank you. Goodbye.

[ABeastNamedTariq]

Were you trying to be clever or something? Lol

[palaeomerus]

Three! Three fish on the line! Ah ah ha!

[objdadon]

I'm lucky enough to have the ps4 and xbox one and I just played the beta last night and some before work. I mainly play fps games and playstation exclusives. This game is The TRUTH for fps fans! It's frantically fantastic!!!!!!!

[Subaruwrx]

What Titanfall teaches us is that cash is king, otherwise why would EA not publish the game on the PS4. The argument that the author uses about it allowing the developers to focus on developing for fewer platforms is bs since the X1 and PS4 have similar architectures.Imo, it wouldn't really have taken that much more resources to port Titanfall to the PS4. We already know that the decision to bring the game to MS platforms only was not made by respawn, it was made by EA. I think EA gambled that the X1 would easily outsell the PS4. Don't know how much cash MS paid but I think this game, even though it doesn't interest me personally, would sell a lot more and bring EA a lot more profit, if it had been released for the PS4 as well.

[_FantasmA_]

That its okay to keep making noob friendly shooters as long as you change the name every year. Call of Duty Modern Warface, Black Ops, Ghosts, and now the Mech Version.

[T-Dawg6]

Ill give an xbox one beta code to the first person who comments.
GO!

[objdadon]

My friend needs one bad! It would help him enjoy what I'm enjoying! Fun!!!!!!

[Subaruwrx]

What Titanfall teaches us is that cash is king, otherwise why would EA not publish the game on the PS4. The argument that the author uses about it allowing the developers to focus on developing for fewer platforms is bs since the X1 and PS4 have similar architectures.Imo, it wouldn't really have taken that much more resources to port Titanfall to the PS4. We already know that the decision to bring the game to MS platforms only was not made by respawn, it was made by EA. I think EA gambled that the X1 would easily outsell the PS4. Don't know how much cash MS paid but I think this game, even though it doesn't interest me personally, would sell a lot more and bring EA a lot more profit, if it had been released for the PS4 as well. Edit @ manicmayhem Per this article http://www.neowin.net/news/... - respawn thought it was a timed exclusive, they weren't aware that MS and EA had made a deal to make it a 'forever' exclusive.

[iceman06]

So the lessons are multiplayer only, no micro-transactions, and exclusivity?
I really don't believe these are lessons to be learned more so than results of Respawns relative position in the industry. Respawn is the offspring of a successful development team at Activision. But, still independent. Which means that they were in a precarious position. They had to tread lightly with their first title. Not that I believe that they had or will have micro-transactions (who knows???). But, it would have been real ballsy for them to have had them in an unproven IP. The multiplayer only aspect is a direct result of sticking to what you do best. If you are going to present something, as an independent developer, you are probably more prone to sticking to what you do best. As for the exclusivity, that was a business decision made by EA. (who were probably hedging their bets on the Xbox brand and it's tradition with FPS's).
By all reports, this title will be great and sell a ton. There is no real need for the overreaching rationale in this article.
Now if the lesson would have been that a development team can strike out on their own and potentially become successful as "independents" in a AAA-publisher dominated industry. The article would have at least been more grounded and less far reaching.