Last week, Titanfall arrived on Xbox One and PC to much acclaim. Titanfall is the first game produced by Respawn Entertainment, the new studio formed by the creators of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. It also happens to be exclusive to Xbox One, 360, and PC thanks to an agreement between Microsoft and the game’s publisher: Electronic Arts.
The Xbox 360 version of Titanfall did not launch alongside its current-gen brothers, having instead been scheduled for a March 25 release. Xbox 360 shooter fanatics will have to wait a little longer to play the game though, as EA just pushed its release back into early April. Does this bode poorly for previous-gen Titanfall?
Delay of game
Although EA and Microsoft have been heavily promoting the Xbox One version of Titanfall since last year, they have yet to release a single asset from the Xbox 360 version. Respawn Entertainment did not develop the 360 game, instead handing porting duties over to Bluepoint Games.
Bluepoint is a studio that specializes in porting games from one platform to another, having worked on the God of War and Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collections for Sony and the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection for Konami. They also ported a couple of Sony games to the Vita.
We know Bluepoint has the chops to bring games to new hardware, but the secrecy behind Titanfall’s Xbox 360 version and this new release delay still provide cause for concern. Shouldn’t someone in the games media have seen Titanfall running on Xbox 360 by now? Microsoft wants to sell Xbox Ones and Titanfall is certainly a system seller. But the 360 version has the potential to do brisk sales as well thanks to that console’s larger established audience, after all.
Down to the wire
Patrick Söderlund, EVP at EA Studios explains the delay and attempts to calm gamers’ fears:
“I’ve been playing the game a lot, and it is fantastic. But we see a few things that can be made even better, so we’re giving Bluepoint a little more time to do just that and deliver an epic Titanfall experience for Xbox 360 players.
Titanfall for Xbox 360 will now be releasing on April 8 in North America, and beginning on April 11 in Europe. The game will feature the same 6v6 gameplay, maps, modes, weapons and Burn Cards as the Xbox One and PC versions of the game.”
The exact reason behind the 360 version’s delay isn’t quite clear. Generally, if a game needed a lot more work you’d expect a delay months instead of weeks. I’m thinking one or more critical bugs popped up during the certification process, necessitating the delay. Xbox 360 Titanfall discs have surely already gone into production, so the extra work Bluepoint and EA are doing now won’t make it onto the disc itself. Instead, expect a title update to accompany the game on release day. Titanfall is an online-only game, so players will need to be online in order to play anyway.
Titanfall will arrive on Xbox 360 on Tuesday, April 8 in the US and Friday, April 11 in Europe. Let’s hope it turns out as well as Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare did. In the meantime, check out our Titanfall Xbox One Controller review. Don't these delays just make you want to buy an Xbox One?