Respawn Entertainment, the studio built from high profile Activision employees previously responsible for Call of Duty, looks likely to be working on something called Titan, which – according to a rumour published this evening on Kotaku – won’t see the light of day on PlayStation 4.
The game is apparently a “multiplayer-centric online shooter”, as you might expect given the studio’s previous experience, and pits soldiers against massive giant exoskeletons, known as – yup, Titans.
It’s all clicking together.
Kotaku’s collaborated story points to Titan being exclusive to Xbox platforms. It’s likely there’ll be a current-gen version alongside a next-gen version, but it’ll only be on Microsoft consoles.
Activision have normally been close bedfellows with the Xbox brand, with timed exclusives on the Call of Duty series pretty much a given of late. This – if true – could have interesting implications.
Vince Zampella and Jason West left Infinity Ward in 2010, forming Respawn. Titan, if that is indeed the name of the game, will be the studio’s first output and would represent a fairly major deal for Microsoft if the exclusivity issue comes to fruition.
Microsoft are revealing their next gen console in May.
boeboe
Interdasting..
bmg_123
I seriously doubt they’ll see major success with this if true. People care about the Call of Duty brand, not who made it, so I don’t think we’ll see massive sales with Titan. They’re effectively halving their sales potential with this move, if true.
pip
I’ll believe it when I see it.
Also, it says on the Respawn Entertainment website that they’re currently developing a multi-platform product.
Alex C
Xbox 360 and 720?
Crazy_Del
Always online eh?
We’ll see in a month when they show off the new X-Box console.
JBoo
“won’t see the light of day on PlayStation 4”
This sounds like the past?!?! i.e – “won’t see the light of day on PlayStation 3” the – ‘BioShock’ games & the ‘GTA4 DLC’ & the ‘Mass Effect’ games + LOADS more i can’t be bothered typing…LoL:D
xdarkmagician
I dont believe it, for two simply reasons.
1) If youre going to go the exclusive route why not just work for MS? I’m sure EA gave them a shit-ton of money, but MS also has to be giving EA a shit-ton of money for the exclusive. Why not just cutt out the middle man and approach MS if they didn’t want to develop for multiple systems?
2) EA sells more games per capita on the playstation brand, or they used to. Surely a company that is so focused on figuring out ways to charge everybody extra for microtransactions wouldn’t ignore half the market, with what is sure to be a very hyped game that the whole industry is patiently waiting for. EA/ActiV/Vince/Jason created a huge drama filled spectacle that when the game finally launches will finally complete the departure story. Its marketing gold, so I cant see EA limiting it to just one console.
…. unless respawn never got a PS4 dev kit and had no choice, in which case I’m sure we’ll see a PS4 port sometime.
Tuffcub
Bollocks. EA dont do platform exclusives.
Cort
Wasn’t there a recent report that MS and EA had signed a high-level strategic partnership to be announced at the Durango reveal?
cc_star
“Bollocks. EA don’t do platform exclusives.”
Mass Effect series was timed exclusive, in fact at one point it was 100% exclusive.
EA also had exclusive marketing deals with Sony’s PS3.
In February this year it was heavily reported that Microsoft & EA will be signing a partnership deal, reading between the lines it soundls like it wasa significant deal too.
Don’t forget how in the shit EA are.
It wouldn’t surprise me if Microsoft didn’t invest in EA in some way like they have done Nokia & are trying to do to Dell, two other companies up to their eyeballs in shit.
Anyway, for this project, Respawn aren’t an EA company, they can do whatever they want, developing a new IP is a huge risk & bringing it to a platform without huge install base limits the scope of the project because it’s difficult to get a return on investment if you sell a million copies instead of 5-10m on existing consoles.
An exclusive deal is a great way to minimise risk on the new IP, whilst still investing in it for it to be as good as it can be.
Hate them though as 50% of people potentially lose out.
Interesting difference between how Sony have made a huge play for indie, whilst Microsoft seem to be competing on AAA.
Tuffcub
Mass Effect exclusivity was what, five, six years ago? Times have changed.
ohmikkie
Mass Effect was originally published by Microsoft not EA. The last two were always published by EA.
Kennykazey
Hopefully not true. It doesn’t seem like something EA would do. But perhaps there’s some form of exclusive content for it, like in the case of Bungies new game.
cc_star
It’s a Respawn game, they’re not owned by EA.
Using EA Partners’ programme to market & distribute your product is distinctly different from being an EA studio.
Porcupine_I
ahhh, good old Microsoft, throwing money at things again
Cort
Has worked quite well for them this gen. If it ain’t broke, etc.
cc_star
Game take money to make, huge games take vast amount of money.
In a new gen a top selling game could sell maybe 1m copies & will cost much more to produce than a top selling game for this gen which would sell 5 to 10 times that many.
Investment from bigger companies is needed whether that’s in the form of Sony buying up development studios and providing the means for big budget titles like Killzone or Uncharted… or whether it’s Microsoft investing in a single title from a studio as could be the case here.
At least Microsoft’s way usually ensures rival platforms get the content at some point.
Bilbo_bobbins
Wont happen, next….