Last week, Respawn's second game launched. By some estimates, Titanfall 2 sold only a quarter of what its predecessor managed, despite launching on more platforms in a market with vastly higher installed base than existed for the original Titanfall (which was itself somewhat overshadowed by Bungie's Destiny). It's a hugely disappointing performance for a game from such an accomplished studio. While sales of the original Titanfall didn't set the world alight, the performance of Titanfall 2 - barring miraculous recovery in the next few weeks - is quite likely the death knell for the budding franchise, and the first commercial failure that West and Zampella have presided over since the turn of the millennium.
---
If the industry knows this, and if it was so obvious that Titanfall 2 wasn't coming to market with the kind of advantages that would let it seriously challenge the competition, then what happened? To a large extent, what happened is all about pride. Activision has ruled the holiday FPS market for years, and EA - whose Star Wars Battlefront made a serious dent last year - wanted to prove itself the big swinging dick of that market this year. That made EA take a risk it shouldn't have taken, committing to a gamble whose risk-reward profile was completely untenable. Respawn Entertainment, which will likely bear the brunt of any hardship resulting from the now-uncertain status of the Titanfall franchise (though it's working on a Star Wars game which will hopefully keep most if not all jobs at the firm secure), likely approved of the release date for reasons that are also more to do with dick-measuring than with commercial good sense; launching a week ahead of the new SF Call of Duty game from their old studio, Infinity Ward, would be a chance to prove that they'd surpassed their old franchise and a final two fingers to the publisher who humiliatingly kicked them out of their old studio six years ago.
