New Frontier Defense a Smash, and Respawn Reinvests in Developing More Content
Titanfall 2 players enjoy the fast-paced PvP combat, but for all those PvE players, there’s little to be found. In the original Titanfall, after years of release, a quiet co-op mode was put into the game. It was bare bones, and was just a way to gain a reduced amount of XP while fighting exclusively NPCs. Not the case with its sequel, Frontier Defense mode features ratcheting up difficulty with a whole new leveling system to improve your Titan for more intense firefights. Respawn reinvests in the co-op experience, and it was a success. In an interview with Gamespot, CEO Vince Zampella said that there are two or three as many people playing Frontier Defense than all the other multiplayer modes combined.
Zampella also said in no uncertain terms that Respawn is already working on more Titanfall and, as a studio, they are focused on delivering more content to the title very soon:
“The game was successful, it sold well, but it didn’t quite sell as well as it should have. Maybe because it was super crowded, the pricing was aggressive–it was a rough window to launch our game. But we’ve got a really great fanbase. There’s not really much negativity or acidity compared to other communities, so I’m very thankful for that. It’s important for us to keep the franchise going. ‘We’re doing more Titanfall,’ which is the quote I’m supposed to say. We have our franchise creative director, who’s in charge of safeguarding the franchise in multiple formats and making sure it continues to grow. There’s some other things we’re doing that haven’t been announced just yet, but we’re heavily invested in the Titanfall universe.
We’re very proud of what we have so far. As a new studio, we tried something different and new, and while it worked–maybe not well enough to remove the single-player–we kinda expanded with the follow-up, and we brought in the single-player, which turned out great. We’re working on more Titanfall–we’re not announcing what that is yet, but there’s a few other things in the works–the mobile game, which turned out fantastic and is super fun, the fans love it and allowed us to expand on what we did in the last games. So I’m pretty happy with what the franchise has become.”
With Frontier Defense as it stands now, it’s almost posed as a Diablo 3 experience, where you get more options from leveling up with four of your friends, facing harder difficulties and more mobs. Too bad there’s not a gear system … yet!