When Titanfall was first announced, it was revealed that the game would be online-only. However, Respawn Entertainment saw fit to include single-player elements such as alternating paths, NPCs and story elements. Why not just make it a persistent open world online shooter? With games such as The Crew and Tom Clancy’s The Division on the horizon, and titles like PlanetSide 2 having done well on the PC, it would certainly make for a bigger experience.
However, when we spoke Respawn community manager Abbie Heppe, she explained that, “It didn’t fit the style of game we were making. Tons of mechanics and design elements need to change or be different if you’re creating an open world game, our style of gameplay fit best in more contained environments. It’s certainly fun to imagine an open world Titanfall game though!”
Titanfall is slated to release for Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC on March 11th 2014 in North America and March 13th 2014 in Europe.