EA confident that Titanfall won't repeat Battlefield 4's launch woes

[Akali]

 

Titanfall testing is showing "great results," says EA boss. "We're really looking forward to seeing the gamer reaction in March."

 

EA executives have said that the launch of much-anticipated shooter Titanfall will not be marred by technical hiccups, unlike the publisher's holiday blockbuster Battlefield 4.

 

The company was asked the question last night during its quarterly earnings call, with EA Games chief Patrick Soderlund stepping in to explain the reasoning behind Battlefield 4's launch issues.

 

"When Battlefield 4 launched," said Soderlund (transcription via Seeking Alpha), "it was a very complex game, launching on 2 entirely new console platforms, as well as current-gen and PC."

 

"We were pushing innovation heavily and we're delivering 60 frames per second gameplay for 64 players plus the ability to connect via mobile tablet as a commander into the product, coupled those with some very innovative features in the gameplay side."

 

EA was "confident" that Battlefield 4 was ready to launch when it did, based off its prelaunch testing. "Shortly after launch," Soderlund recalled, "we began hearing about problems from our player community, and the development team quickly began to address the situation."

 

"The challenge that we've faced with Battlefield 4 were different from anything that we've seen before with other games," continued the exec, emphasising that EA is working to ensure that a similar thing does not happen in its future games, such as Titanfall.

 

"There were different issues that only manifest its scale in the post-launch live environment. We're taking multiple steps to evaluate what occurred and incorporate those learnings into our development process for future products, so we don't experience the same problems again."

 

DICE announced last night that February would be Battlefield 4's player appreciation month, and that the shooter will dish out a suite of bonuses to players as atonement for the game's shaky launch.

 

CEO Andrew WIlson also stepped into the discussion, bringing up the experience of Respawn Entertainment and Microsoft in launching shooters. "We're currently moving through kind of public tests of Titanfall, and we're seeing great results and we're really looking forward to seeing the gamer reaction in March."

 

Titanfall will launch for Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PC on March 11.

 

Source: Gamespot

Edited January 29, 2014 by RedStarRocket91
Added source.

[BeckoningZebra1]

I'm really excited about TitanFall. Obviously no one wants to have a launch remotely similar to Battlefield 4, but Respawn would be very wise to take the proper procedures to make their first launch be a good one.

[The Stig]

For some reason I actually believe EA this time! Now I have lots of hope, and am very excited!