Titanfall single-player would feel like "a step backward," says Respawn

Bad news for anyone hoping for a single-player campaign in Titanfall : Respawn Entertainment founder Vince Zampella and Titanfall Director Steve Fukuda both made it clear in a new interview that they have very little interest in making it happen.

Titanfall seems like an ideal setting for a single-player campaign, if only because "giant fighting robots in space" has the kind of flexibility that lets scriptwriters get away with just about anything. But that's not the direction Respawn Entertainment wants to take the game.

"A single-player campaign? I don't know. I think we want to hit whatever part of the brain it is that triggers that feeling of a single-player campaign," Zampella said in an interview with CVG .

"To me it would almost be a step backwards," Fukuda added. "Doing straight up single-player just feels a little bit to me like going back to what you know."

There was some effort put into the creation of a single-player campaign early in the process, but Fukuda said there was a "big brain shift amongst the team" as the development went on. "At first there was a lot of resistance to going multiplayer only, but once they saw the game they were like, 'Wow'," he said.

"There's nothing wrong with a single-player experience. They should exist and they do exist and I would work on one," Zampella added. "But doing one with this feels almost like taking a step backwards."

It's an interesting assessment, if one I don't necessarily agree with. I might feel differently if Titanfall was priced comparably to, say, Team Fortress 2 , but as long as it's carrying that $60 triple-A price tag, I'm going to have to insist on a little bit more.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.