EA defends Battlefield 1 & Titanfall 2 release schedule; “We believe they both will have a long sale cycle”


A lot of gamers criticized Electronic Arts for releasing Titanfall 2 between Battlefield 1 and Activision’s upcoming Call of Duty title, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. However, EA defended its decision as it believes that both games will have a long sale cycle.

As EA’s CEO Andrew Wilson said in today’s earnings call, and while Battlefield 1 and Titanfall 2 have some overlap, they fulfill very different motivations in what a player is looking for.

“We think there’s really three types of players. 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.”

Wilson claimed that EA is very excited about the quality in both titles, and that both Battlefield 1 and Titanfall 2 will have a long sale cycle.

To his credit, Wilson is right as both Battlefield 1 and Titanfall 2 are two well polished products. Respawn has just released the first PC update for Titanfall 2 that comes with various performance improvements, and includes a new adaptive resolution scaling option (ideal for those with weaker GPUs).

EA’s CFO Blake Jorgensen added that EA will work with Respawn on building the Titanfall franchise for many, many years to come.

“Part of the strategy of building a franchise is you have a long view. You think about the business differently than you might an existing franchise like a FIFA or a Madden. What that means is we’re looking for ways to not fragment the player base early, but to include [as many players] as we can to continue to build that franchise. We think that’s the right strategy for a product like Titanfall.”