Titanfall Fans React to Extraction Shooter Cancelation — Is This the Final Nail in the Coffin for Titanfall 3 and the Franchise?

Titanfall enthusiasts are grappling with the recent announcement that EA has canceled yet another incubation project at Respawn Entertainment, while also laying off numerous staff members across its incubation, Apex Legends, Star Wars: Jedi, and EA Experience teams. The project in question, codenamed R7, was revealed by Bloomberg to be an extraction shooter set within the beloved Titanfall universe. Although this wasn't the Titanfall 3 sequel fans have been yearning for, the news has left many disheartened, especially since it's been nearly a decade since the release of Titanfall 2.

"I just fell to my knees at Walmart," said one player, capturing the raw emotion felt by many in the community. Another fan wrote in despair, "I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE."

However, not all reactions were negative. Some fans believe the cancellation of the extraction shooter could be a blessing in disguise, potentially saving the Titanfall franchise from a failed venture. "Best thing that could've happened as far as the continued existence of this franchise is concerned," posited a redditor. "A Titanfall extraction shooter would probably flop and the c-suite executives would say 'see, the people just don't like Titanfall anymore,' instead of the obvious reason being nobody asked for a Titanfall XTS."

"I’m fine with this one being canceled," responded another, followed by: "Extraction shooter lmao. Good riddance."

"So sick and tired of 'extraction shooters'. They're so formulaic and boring. I don't want to loot bunch of useless shit and camp in an attic or sit in a bush for 20 minutes or risk getting shot moving thru big open fields. Give me quick matches, wallrunning and titans blastin'," suggested a fan, highlighting the desire for the classic Titanfall gameplay experience.

"Got sad. Read extraction shooter. Was literally okay," summarized another, indicating a mixed but ultimately accepting response to the news.

The layoffs at Respawn impacted approximately 100 jobs across development, publishing, and QA teams on Apex Legends, as well as smaller groups involved with the Star Wars: Jedi team and two canceled incubation projects, including the Titanfall-themed extraction shooter. These cuts are part of a broader wave of layoffs at EA, which earlier in the year restructured BioWare, moving developers to other projects and laying off others. In 2023, EA eliminated 50 jobs at BioWare and an unknown number more at Codemasters. In 2024, a larger restructuring led to 670 workers being laid off company-wide, including around two dozen workers at Respawn.

In 2023, it was revealed that Respawn Entertainment had worked on Titanfall 3 "in earnest" for 10 months before shifting focus to Apex Legends. Mohammad Alavi, who had become the narrative lead designer on Titanfall 3, shared insights with The Burnettwork about the development process. “Titanfall 2 came out, did what it did, and we were like, ‘Okay, we’re gonna make Titanfall 3,’ and we worked on Titanfall 3 for about 10 months, right? In earnest, right?

“We had new tech for it, we had multiple missions going, we had a first playable, which was on par to be just as good if not better than whatever we had before, right? But I’ll make this clear: incrementally better, it wasn’t revolutionary. And that’s the key thing, right?

“And we were feeling pretty decent about it, but not the same feeling as Titanfall 2 where we were making something revolutionary, y’know what I mean?”

Alavi explained that the decision to pivot away from Titanfall 3 was influenced by multiple factors. The multiplayer team struggled to create an experience that wouldn't quickly burn out players, a recurring issue from Titanfall 1 to Titanfall 2. Additionally, the rise of the Battle Royale genre, particularly with the release of PUBG in 2017, played a significant role.

“The multiplayer team was having a hell of a time trying to fix the multiplayer, because a lot of people love the multiplayer. People love Titanfall 2 multiplayer,” Alavi noted. “But the people who love Titanfall 2 multiplayer is a very small number of people. And most people play Titanfall 2 multiplayer and think it’s really good, but it’s just too much. It’s cranked up to 11, and they burn out a bit fast. And they’re like, ‘That was a great multiplayer, that’s not something I continually play a year, two years,’ right?

“So we were trying to fix that. We were trying to fix that from Titanfall 1 to 2, trying to fix it from Titanfall 2 to 3, the multiplayer team was just dying.

“And then PUBG came out.”

The enthusiasm of Respawn developers for a Battle Royale map using Titanfall 3 classes led to a pivotal moment. They realized they could either continue with a sequel that might only be slightly better than Titanfall 2, or pivot to create a groundbreaking Battle Royale game.

“And at the time, I had just literally become [the] narrative lead designer on Titanfall 3. I had just pitched the story, the whole game, that me and Manny [Hagopian] had come up with. We made this big presentation and then we went off at break, and came back from break, and we talked about it and we were like, ‘Yeah, we need to pivot. And we need to go make this game.’

“We literally canceled Titanfall 3 ourselves ’cause we were like, ‘We can make this game, and it’s going to be Titanfall 2 plus a little bit better, or we can make this thing, which is clearly amazing.’

“And don’t get me wrong, I will always miss having another Titanfall. I love that game. Titanfall 2 is my most crowning achievement, but it was the right call. That is a crazy cut. Such a crazy cut that EA didn’t even know about it for another six months until we had a prototype up and running that we could show them!”