Why Did Titanfall Fail Commercially?

[123456789A]

It had no story and it wasn't very engaging. It just felt like a shell of a game.

[spaceelf]

It's just funny to me how often these threads come up but have no actual supporting evidence.  I just looked over some of EAs quarterly and annual financial releases and at no point do they say the game underperformed.

[TDT]

It's just funny to me how often these threads come up but have no actual supporting evidence.  I just looked over some of EAs quarterly and annual financial releases and at no point do they say the game underperformed.

 

I wouldn't expect them to say this (if it's true), ever, about any game. In fact, there are few companies that admit stuff like this about one of their products. It's bad publicity.

 

That is what I find so shocking about the Halo Master Chief Collection.  I have seen some scores where it got 2.5 / 5 just because of multiplayer issues.  I am only interested in single player, and all these very low scores are skewed.

 

Maybe because the majority of people these days are interested in the multiplayer part of the games. These scores really don't affect my decision to play a game or not, so...

[spaceelf]

I wouldn't expect them to say this (if it's true), ever, about any game. In fact, there are few companies that admit stuff like this about one of their products. It's bad publicity.

They're a publicly traded company.  They can't lie to their stockholders.

[TDT]

They're a publicly traded company.  They can't lie to their stockholders.

No, but they can hold it off as long as they can or sugar-coat it, right?

[spaceelf]

No, but they can hold it off as long as they can or sugar-coat it, right?

Not really.  Lost money is lost money, you can't dance around that.  What their results tell me is that it made them money, but not as much as their biggest sellers.  Not even remotely a surprise when those are from long standing popular series.

[TDT]

Not really.  Lost money is lost money, you can't dance around that.  What their results tell me is that it made them money, but not as much as their biggest sellers.  Not even remotely a surprise when those are from long standing popular series.

Well then I guess this thread means that the game failed compared to its hype.

[spaceelf]

Well then I guess this thread means that the game failed compared to its hype.

All this thread means is the same thing it meant the several other times people said it:

 

Nothing.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

That is what I find so shocking about the Halo Master Chief Collection.  I have seen some scores where it got 2.5 / 5 just because of multiplayer issues.  I am only interested in single player, and all these very low scores are skewed.

 

H:MCC repacks the same stories, so it's obviously going to be very heavily weighted on MP performance

 

Half a working game, half the total score seems reasonable. Especially when we're at the 1 month mark and it's still broken.

[+InsaneNutter MVC]

I think if Titanfall had a proper single player campaign, like Gears of War it would have been so much fun. Plaything through an epic campaign been able to board mechs and cause devastation would have been loads of fun, and something a lot different to traditional FPS games.

 

As it stands i thought it was a massively unbalanced Call of Duty clone with mech power ups. You have to wait several minutes to get a mech, which gets destroyed quite easily, then your essentially running about trying not to be killed by people in mechs until you can get another.

 

In the 20 or so games i've played the match making has always left the teams massively unbalanced in my experience, which didn't really help when trying to enjoy the game.

 

However I have a few mates who have put 100+ hours in to the game and love it, for me personally i just never found it interesting. I only have the game as i got it as a birthday present so thought it would be rude not to put a few hours in to it.

[ViperAFK]

Titanfall suffered a combo of initially being way overhyped, and subsequently being significantly underrated and being unfairly regarded as 'cod with mechs' (I've already seen several posts in this very thread claiming this, anyone with significant playtime in titanfall knows its a lot more than cod with mechs, any similarities to cod are mostly superficial and the gameplay is quite a different beast). In addition it was overpriced for a multiplayer only game, probably would have fared better at 40-50 dollars at launch (and it didn't help that they overhyped its 'revolutionary' multiplayer campaign which was nothing more than regular attrition with some voiceovers in the background).

 

It also doesn't have the endless skinner's box of unlocks that many fps gamers crave these days (personally I think the barebones approach with several balance and well defined weapons is preferable, but for some reason many gamers these days have the attitude of 'What, there's not 30 different assault rifles?! garbage game!!1).

[spaceelf]

You have to wait several minutes to get a mech, which gets destroyed quite easily, then your essentially running about trying not to be killed by people in mechs until you can get another.

Learning the gameplay flow (and maps) is part of any game, and once you have it down that's just not how it goes (since grunt, pilot and titan hits all decrease that timer.)

 

Most of my time as a pilot is spent as needed, and helping take down titans (especially ones preoccupied fighting other titans) is a large part of it.  I often have more titan kills than deaths.

[+Zagadka Subscriber²]

The 6v6 was probably very limited because of the mechs and map sizes.

 

The main drawback for many people is just the lack of singleplayer. Doing the same 6 maps over and over with almost no story (technically there is one).

 

And at launch ,the matchmaking, well, didn't exist, so a lot of people gave up.

[PGHammer]

A bit off topic Gabe3 but I went and saw FURY great WWII movie. I'd also like to get back to some ww2 games. They just ran them into the ground but then again they haven't stopped with the fps future crap either. 

The reality is that "mech" games have never (as in ever) been accepted - look at MechWarrior (the original one - not the reboot) and all the sequels.  Look at Total Annihilation.  (While TA was an RTS and a "cult classic", was it, by any stretch, a success?)  Titanfall was the first "mech" game to actually DELIVER on the promise of what a real "mech" game SHOULD be since MechWarrior (in fact, it delivered BETTER than MechWarrior did) - however, BECAUSE it is a "mech" game, it was pooh-poohed.  (The same thing is happening to COD:AW.)

 

In fact, compare - heads-up, mind you - CoD: AW to Titanfall; which is better, and, more importantly, WHY is your choice better?

[Osiris]

Look at Total Annihilation.  (While TA was an RTS and a "cult classic", was it, by any stretch, a success?) 

 

I actually do agree that mechs aren't as popular as Hollywood or game studios like to imagine but in terms of TA, the game went on to spurn expansions and a sequel.  it was also basically the basis for Supreme Commander which also went on to have a sequel.  Things which do not occur without commercial success.  It won numerous awards, high user reviews, critical acclaim and has ended up on many top 10 rts lists for years.  Whilst it didn't have the publishing reach and marketing of other titles like C&C and Warcraft its far from being purely a cult classic.

[PGHammer]

I actually do agree that mechs aren't as popular as Hollywood or game studios like to imagine but in terms of TA, the game went on to spurn expansions and a sequel.  it was also basically the basis for Supreme Commander which also went on to have a sequel.  Things which do not occur without commercial success.  It won numerous awards, high user reviews, critical acclaim and has ended up on many top 10 rts lists for years.  Whilst it didn't have the publishing reach and marketing of other titles like C&C and Warcraft its far from being purely a cult classic.

While "mechs" for a lot of PC gamers was defined by MechWarrior (which, like Dungeons and Dragons, started as a pen-and-paper game), for me, an ideal "mech" game was defined by a book - one actually older than the MechWarrior pen-and-paper game - Starship Troopers.  So far, a grand total of ONE "mech" game has actually lived up to what I wanted a "mech" game to be - Titanfall.  It wasn't that games didn't try - the original MechWarrior (DOS/Windows 9x) certainly did  BlackLight tried harder, and Hawken put forth a good effort.  The problem with all three is that none lived up to the "Starship Troopers" ideal I had in my head - and if you read the book, you would KNOW why.  (The movie was okay - however, even IT did not live up to the book.)  The bigger issue may well be that a "mech" game in the style that I would prefer may simply be too "out there" to be commercially successful.  (TA and SupCom are more RTSes, as opposed to shooters - I actually HAVE played TA and bought SupCom and both sequels and have nothing against them - still, shooters they aren't.)