How Respawn Entertainment won this generation

Chirag Pattni talks about the struggles of Respawn Entertainment. Their quality games and how they've become one of the best developers in the industry.

[Spurg]

From Software owns this generation with Dark Souls

[UltraNova]

Agreed, Bloodborne, DS3, Sekiro....its no contest really. Then you have Capcom... Monster Hunter, DMC5, RE 2 remake etc...man if a dev is on fire its them!

That said, my respects to Respawn as well for escaping the designation of "those guys that made Modern warfare" to the guys who managed to become EA's top tier and most valuable studio, beating DICE in the process by releasing spectacular games like the Titanfall series, the great Star wars:fallen order and Apex Legends.

Edit:

Special mention - Square Enix for being awesome as well the entire gen.

[NiteX]

There's many people who just don't care about From Software games. Capcom did okay this gen, not great. They waited until the very end to give us RE2 and the passable DMC5. Square Enix was all over the place this gen, the black stain that is FFXV tarnished the SE name.

[Ricegum]

*Bloodborne

[2pacalypsenow]

Respawn has made 2 successful game in 6 years and they won the generation?

[Atom666]

You act like making 2 successful games in a six year span isn't actually pretty damn impressive.

Titanfall 1, Titanfall 2, Apex, and now Fallen Order are all quality titles. All from a brand new studio somehow succeeding despite the succubus that is EA.

I'll give credit where it's due with those guys.

[2pacalypsenow]

Titanfall is average at best.

You can’t “own” a decade when you haven’t done as much as others.

First game got boring after the first hour, and the second no one played.

[Atom666]

Uh huh. It's generation, not decade.

Let's be real, I suspect you didn't play either game. Not sure what's to gain from knocking Respawn, though. I'm guessing it's somehow related to fanboy wars, but I think we'd be lucky if more devs delivered like they have this gen.

[TK-66]

@Atom666

4 successful games***

They've had TF1, TF2, Apex Legends and Fallen Order. Incredibly good record for a new studio in that timespan.

[2pacalypsenow]

My bad, generation not decade.

2013 - 2019.

You're telling me releasing 2 average games and 2 good games is merit to "own" an entire generation across 4 consoles and 6 years?

Damn then this generation was worse than I thought.

[TK-66]

@2pacalysenow

You've got two lessons to take away from this:

1. Understand the flexibility of usage for the word "won".
2. Learn to read past the headline.

The article isn't saying there are any losers this generation, or that Respawn was in a competition with anyone else. It's talking about how they were a new studio following the Infinity Ward controversy and that they've now gone on to become a respected studio with multiple successes under their belt in one generation. Titanfall, Apex Legends and Fallen Order; how can you interpret that to not being a huge win for a new studio?

[2pacalypsenow]

Because I don't fall for the " poor them, they got treated poorly, started their own studio and now make some decent games, lets give them a gold star", I mean it's not like we're talking about some rookie developers here, they're freaking Infinity Ward.

I would put FromSoftware, Nintendo, Ubisoft or Capcom ahead of them in terms of quantity and quality for this generation.

Now if the article is talking about "The little engine that could", then I agree with you.

[Teflon02]

Because moving already experienced devs to a new studio doesn't change the fact alot are involved in making one of histories biggest named FPS titles. There isn't anything really that impressive about what they've done. I'd say they've been pretty average. Respawn had a respected name from the beginning so they're really in no different spot now

[BQ32]

Because there are so many haters on here against mp games and respawn has mostly specialized in mp. I swear there is a legion of gamers that can't handle losing in mp so instead just try and look down and trash anything mp oriented. This site is overwhelming made up of sp players so the logic of downvotes and disagrees is easy to understand.

[TK-66]

@2pacalypsenow

Everything you said isn't a refutation of what this article said. You attacked it because you misunderstood the title and refused to read past it.

"I mean it's not like we're talking about some rookie developers here, they're freaking Infinity Ward."

Yeah, and they had zero equipment at the start. Have you seen the story of the studios beginnings? How bare and empty the studio was and having to negotiate with landlords and having makeshift work areas for the early months of development. That studio 6 years later has 4 highly successful games under their belt and have achieved greater success than most major studios in that timeframe. Its a great success story.

"I would put FromSoftware, Nintendo, Ubisoft or Capcom ahead of them in terms of quantity and quality for this generation."

Ubisoft? Ahead in terms of quality? LOL. I don't even need to explain how dumb that opinion is. Also, your showing you completely missed the point of the article, and how its not saying that anyone lost because Respawn won. It's saying that Respawn did great this generation and that its A HUGE WIN FOR THEM. Why is that so difficult for you to understand? Get some wrinkles in your brain....

@Teflon02

"Because moving already experienced devs to a new studio doesn't change the fact alot are involved in making one of histories biggest named FPS titles."

However, it does mean that that they had to find a completely different work-space, and build funds for a new studio. Have you not seen the pictures of their early workplaces? They were squatting for a period of time because that was the only meeting place they could find. Just because they were Infinity Ward doesn't mean they'll achieve the same quality and success as a new studio; Bungie's record since going independent proves that.

The studio had nothing but wins this generation. Whats so difficult to understand about that?

[purple101]

Santa Monica won this gen hands down. Never had so many good battles as in god of war. Its the only game I ever wanted to increase the difficty and try again.. It was THAT GOOD

[Thunder_G0d_Bane]

One game and you think they've won a gen? Its not even better than God of War 3.

I can't say any particular dev has won the gen. But From Software has had the most hits this gen.

[Ricegum]

^ clearly hasn't played God Of War.

[KyRo]

You could release one game and it could make them Dev on the generation to someone. Quality over quantity.

I don't really think there's any one studio this generation that has defined a generation for me where as last generation it would have been Naughty Dog by quite a margin.

This topic is subjective though. The first post states From Software but apart from BloodBorne, I couldn't really get into DS or Sekrio but that don't make his opinion wrong. It's just not to my taste.

[Wasabi]

@Purple101

**"Santa Monica won this gen hands down"**

God of War was ok and I very much enjoyed the battles with the Valkyrie's, but I preferred the God of War 3 remaster personally. The overall enemy design and variety was far superior in my opinion.

I mean, how many times do the devs want me to fight a different colour variation of the exact same troll with the exact same animation when I kill it.

[purple101]

True, I just think they story, sound and fighting mechanics, everything about it I loved.

I did expect it to be good but it surpassed my expectations.

I come from playing fighting / driving arcade kart racers... Pick up n'play type games.

For me to play a big long story game rpg action whatever you want to call it... It must have been good!

[Wasabi]

@Purple

There's no doubting God of War is a great game but after playing the other games in the God of War series, I just felt that the change of pace was too much for me personally.

There were some amazing set pieces (The dragon fight at the top of the mountain was a standout moment) and I still think that the (Thor like) feeling of power when you throw and recover the leviathan axe is unmatched in any other game outside of Control or the Infamous series, it almost brought a nostalgic tear to my eye when I finally got my hands on the Blades of Chaos later in the game.

The trolls did p*ss me off though, The first time I fought one I was like "this is amazing", after what seemed like the 10th fight against them the novelty had worn off despite some slight changes to the fight design with the introduction of different elements as the game progressed.

I'm glad you enjoyed it, I'd certainly buy a sequel as I enjoyed it too - but for me at least it was not quite as good as some of the older games in the series.

[rainslacker]

I think Geurilla Games won. At least if we're going to keep it to Sony 1st party. They finally got recognition to how good of a studio they are outside the KZ, and a segment of the overall PS fan base. They've always kind of been in the background behind ND and SSM, but they are some of the best game designers and graphics engineers in the industry.

[Y_5150]

@rainslacker I believe you are right. Horizon Zero Dawn is definitely my favorite game this gen and what started me off this gen was actually Shadow Fall which had a pretty fun Multiplayer.

[Yui_Suzumiya]

I played through about half of God of War and then sold it for Wolfenstein: Youngblood which I put about 40 hours into and loved.

[Elda]

An opinion.

[Lon3wolf]

Funny that on an opinion piece article.

[Chocoburger]

While I don't share the same sentiment, I did enjoy renting TF2 for the campaign. It was quick, breezy, fun, but ultimately forgettable. I don't care for CoD-style multiplayer, so I never touched it.
Jedi Order is fun as well, but also very much an amalgamation of many previous games that have come before, while also lacking in polish featuring plenty of goofy / glitchy animations.

I'm glad to see Respawn see some success, especially after their tumultuous history. First they made Medal of Honor games (the good ones) for EA. Then EA mistreated them, so they quit and created a rival series Call of Duty for Activsion. Then Activison mistreated them, so they quit and went back to EA. I hope they're getting better treatment now.

As for "winning the generation" my favorite games this generation are MGS V and Death Stranding, so to me, its Kojima Productions.

[Kornholic]

What the hell are you talking about? Respawn's first Medal of Honor will be released in 2020.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...

[Chocoburger]

My post was clear, but I'll try again for those are that particularly slow.
- Jason West, Vince Zampella, and other game developers worked on Medal of Honor games for EA.
- They quit and went to Activision to form Infinity Ward and make CoD.
- Then they got fired / quit (hard to say) and re-joined EA to form Respawn.

This was big news in the past, lots of headlines previously.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...

Infinity Ward, Inc. is an American video game developer. They developed the video game Call of Duty, along with seven other installments in the Call of Duty series. Vince Zampella, Grant Collier, and Jason West established Infinity Ward in 2002 after working at 2015, Inc. previously.[2][3] All of the 22 original team members of Infinity Ward came from the team that had worked on Medal of Honor: Allied Assault while at 2015, Inc. Activision helped fund Infinity Ward in its early days, buying up 30 percent of the company.[4] The studio's first game, World War II shooter Call of Duty, was released on the PC in 2003. The day after the game was released, Activision bought the rest of Infinity Ward, signing employees to long term contracts. Infinity Ward went on to make Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and the Modern Warfare reboot.

Co-founder Collier left the company in early 2009 to join parent company Activision. In 2010, West and Zampella were fired by Activision for "breaches of contract and insubordination",[5][6] they soon founded a game studio called Respawn Entertainment. On May 3, 2014, Neversoft was merged into Infinity Ward.[7]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...

[Kornholic]

It still wasn't Respawn who created Medal of Honor games before. Respawn is a relatively new studio. You were not clear.

[bluefox755]

...what? What happened to games journalism?

[ps3rider]

it won shit

[Zefros]

Who cares? We got amazing games from many developers, games like dmc5, bloodborne, sekiro, star wars, spiderman, death stranding, uncharted, forza, grand turismo, horizon zero dawn, red dead redemption 2, life is strange, god of war, titanfall 2, resident evil 2 remake and soon re3 remake. In my opinion there is no victor. The ones who are victorious are us the gamers.

[monkey602]

They made a huge mistake making Titanfall 1 exclusive.

Titanfall 2s launch was a disaster *great game but it relied on multiplayer and that's not good if there's no community.

Apex was excellent but they took far too long to add content and the battle Pass was a blatant attempt at robbery.

I've yet to play Star Wars

They've been a good developer but seriously can't even consider these in the shortlist of best of a generation

[SyntheticForm]

I must say I've been thoroughly enjoying Fallen Order.

[monkey602]

Ive been hearing that a lot actually. It's definitely going on my list

[william_cade]

FromSoft

[Kran]

Can we all just agree:

There's not 1 definite company who won the generation. People claiming another Dev did need to not do so, because there are hundreds of factors that show it's not just 1 company that did it, but many.

[purple101]

I've still yet to play titalfall 2. (free this month on ps+ - to keep or delete & re-download as many times as you want - it's supposed to be great)

Curreny playing wrekfest! Gt sport and the new. Modernwarfare online. So many great games about its a joke.

[purple101]

The last of us 2 isn't out yet.

Naughty dog can still do it actually...

( although Im hardly a fan of horror, or. Worse survival horror games, I appriciated a lot are)

Add that to uncharted. + lost legacy. =win?

[Rambokind]

Respawn? Never heard of them

[FanboysKiller]

It's Square Enix ,look at tr ,so much better than uncharted, and there are plenty other games from them.

[Jrios355]

I don't know about them winning the whole generation, but the fact that a new studio was able to release 4 well-received titles under the terrible ownership of EA is impressive, and I give them props for their success.

[MWH]

This win that win, let us all just agree that in the end what's important is; we, gamers, win.

[InflectionPoint]

The whole concept of winning a generation is outdated and stupid. That statement funnels all game liking people into a single sheep like entity and you're high to think all gamers like the same things.

[whitbyfox]

Metacritic; aka, how they didn’t...

PS4: The Last of Us Remastered - 95.
Switch: Zelda Breath of the Wild/Super Mario Odyssey - 97.

PS3: Uncharted 2 - 96.
Wii: Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 - 97.

PS2: Metal Gear Solid 2 - 96.
Gamecube: Metroid Prime - 97.

Playstation: Gran Turismo - 96.
N64: Zelda Ocarina of Time- 99.

[PrinterMan]

Ummm. No. Their games are okay but not generation defining. IMHO. No system sellers or anything but they have been pretty consistent.