Battlefield 4, Warhammer Online, Mass Effect 3, and Titanfall all have something in common. Can you guess what it is? Well, not only were they AAA titles published by EA, but they were pushed out to market before they were ready to walk.
Battlefield 4 was the most recent mishap, and DICE is still working tirelessly to fix bugs that it knew were present at launch, but there are other games that have been devastated in a much more significant fashion. I remember when Warhammer Online came out like it was yesterday. It was an MMO hyped as the World of Warcraft killer, and by all intents and purposes if it was anything like was promised it probably would have been. But a huge shove by EA to force it out of its pre-release development cycle left it falling to its death face first. Star Wars: The Old Republic suffered a similar fate a few years later, although not nearly as grim, triggering some déjà vu from MMO veterans.
Titanfall is the latest to join what has become a legendary crew of games that have been rushed to market before they could get the polish they deserved. It’s a game with huge ambitions that were cut short by an inescapable release deadline. Instead of being able to fully realize its completely achievable vision for the FPS genre, developer Respawn Entertainment had to decide what was critical and what wasn’t. Anything that wasn’t absolutely necessary to make the game work was cut (i.e. those monsters you’ve heard about). Now those elements have to be saved for DLC or Titanfall 2.
Then there’s the technical side of things. Reading Digital Foundry‘s analysis of Titanfall shows that the rush didn’t just affect content. I have been able to tell while playing it that it doesn’t run the way it should, but I didn’t realize it was as bad as it is. Here’s a game on brand spanking new hardware that runs at 792p and isn’t even close to holding its target framerate of 60. I can’t even wait to see how the Xbox 360 handles the code.
This isn’t an issue only affecting the Xbox One, either. PC gamers have been shocked at how poorly optimized the game is despite running on Valve’s clean-cut Source engine. In other words, this is a problem with the game, not necessarily the Xbox One hardware.
Moreover, server issues have prevented many gamers from being able to play during launch week. Microsoft got a handle on its dedicated servers during day one, but PC gamers are losing patience with an array of errors that make the game completely unplayable. After all, the game is online-only, so they can’t just begin a single-player campaign and kill some time while waiting for the server infrastructure to be brought under control.
I’m a sucker for good gameplay, so to me Titanfall is still remarkably successful (hence why I awarded it a 9/10). However, it pains me to think of what it could have been if it were given a little more time.
To be fair, EA invests a massive amount of money into game development. If a game is delayed just a few months that increases the cost by several million which it has to justify. It also pushes it outside of its target release window where marketing deals and more have already been solidified. Furthermore, this is an issue with modern games being so expensive to develop. It’s not surprising that indie titles are on the rise given their much lower risk nature, and games are being delayed now more than ever—Driveclub and Watch Dogs, for example.
When it comes down to it, a content-rich Titanfall would have impacted not only the FPS genre but the industry in a more significant way. Pushing it out the door was a risk that was quickly met by backlash. EA would much prefer if the game sat above the 90% percentile on Metacritic and wasn’t taking a lashing from many who are calling it overhyped. But it has to deal with reality where decisions have consequences. The consequences once again are a game that could have been so much more.
