EA defends awkward Battlefield 1 and Titanfall 2 scheduling

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Though belonging to the same genre, they cater to different audiences, exec claims.

Many have speculated that releasing Battlefield 1 and Titanfall 2 within the same fortnight might have been a bad business move on Electronic Arts' part. As someone who does not crunch figures and touch bases for a living I cannot confirm one way or another, but it was obviously a deliberate move. Whether it will affect the playerbase of the less popular title, Titanfall 2, is probably a more important discussion.

During an earnings call today (via Gamespot), an EA stakeholder asked whether the publisher would repeat this scheduling tactic again. After all, bricks and mortar sales for Titanfall 2 haven't been too great in the UK, and EA's share price dipped after analysts predicted the game would fail.  

EA CEO Andrew Wilson didn't explicitly answer the question, but he justified the publisher's motives. "We think there's really three types of players," he said. "People that really love Battlefield and that kind of big strategic gameplay that will orient in that direction; the player that loves the fast, fluid, kinetic gameplay of Titanfall 2 that really orient in that direction; and the player that just has to play the two greatest shooters this year and will buy both."

He continued: "and again, we're very very excited about the quality in both titles. We believe they both will have a long sale cycle, both this quarter through the festive season and deep into the years to come. And so as we think about the long game on this, we couldn't be in a better position for what we think is delivering great games to a very, very big player base."

Whatever the case, a spokesperson for Respawn admitted earlier this week that the scheduling was set in stone a long time ago, and that there was no flexibility to change it. One thing's for sure: according to the reviews so far, it didn't need any more time in the oven.

Shaun Prescott
Shaun Prescott
Australian Editor

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.