EA affirmed its commitment to mech-busting shooter property Titanfall in its latest earnings call yesterday, with CFO Blake Jorgensen declaring the publishing giant's intent to develop it into a long-term franchise.
How about that Titanfall 2 campaign? Is it really that good? Matt Purslow has the answer.
The early data suggests Titanfall 2 has not had the best launch, with sales figures via GfK Chart-Track (which, we should , only tracks UK sales of physical games) placing it in the UK charts at number four, behind FIFA 17 and narrowly ahead of Farming Simulator 17. This despite being multi-format and glowing reviews. Ouch.
But any Titanfall fans worried that the slow start would discourage EA's decision-makers can seemingly rest easy. Titanfall 2 was discussed at length in EA's latest earnings call, and all the chatter was positive. Here's CEO Andrew Wilson:
"Critics agree that Titanfall 2 is a fantastic game, with more than 40 top outlets from around the world rating it 90 and above in reviews… Titanfall 2 is being called one of the year's must-play titles, and we're excited to see more fans across the world getting their hands on this extraordinary game."
And CFO Blake Jorgensen:
"This is something that we plan to be working with [Respawn] on for many, many years to come, and there's huge opportunity inside of that franchise to continue to expand it. And so part of the strategy of building a franchise is you have a long view."
To the extent that sales figures are acknowledged at all, they're written off. Jorgensen says "it's still too early to update sales forecasts" for either Titanfall 2 or Battlefield 1, but later claims "you should assume that the early data" is "strong" thanks largely to the "skew towards PC" compared to EA's big shooter last year, Star Wars: Battlefront, which was always stronger on console.
You can see the full transcript of the call at coulddelay it "if they have to" (but no need to panic just yet).