Respawn Entertainment has courted quite a bit of backlash for announcing that their upcoming multiplayer-focused shooter Titanfall would only support a maximum of 12 players. Though it indicated that each player would have their own Titan with them in either follow or guard mode, fans criticized the lesser number of combatants.
However, in conversation with Polygon, lead designer Justin Hendry stated that it was the game’s improved movement capabilities, seen in the wall-running and jet-packing, that required limiting the number of players.
“The higher the player count, the more uncomfortable the game gets. Unlike in most games where you can sit there and guard the two ways in, in Titanfall the guy can come in through the window right behind you, he can come from the window to your left, he can come from straight ahead, he can come in from the stairway and he can come in from the doorway, or whatever.
“Essentially there are five directions you can get killed from and the higher that player count, the more likely you are to get killed from behind and the more difficult it is to kind of manage your surroundings.”
So don’t expect anything like Battlefield 4 or Call of Duty: Ghosts. Hendry also revealed that maps in Titanfall will feature up to 50 combatants, which includes players, Titans and different AIs so they won’t feel sparse in any way.
Titanfall is slated to release on March 11th for North America and March 14th for UK on Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC.
