Just this evening, Vince Zampella of Respawn Entertainment confirmed that Titanfall would have a maximum player count of 12. That being said, there’s a lot going on otherwise at any given time. A member of the studio took to NeoGAF to respond to the harsh fan reaction to Titanfall’s player count. The somewhat dismissive tone of the statement begins with is quickly rectified by some actual information,

Lots of armchair game designing going on in here. I’d suggest playing before judging a something as insignificant as a number in a vacuum.

 

Vince is right – we tried a huge amount of playercounts (all the way down to

1v1 and up quite high) and designed the maps, gameplay mechanics, and entire experience around which played best. If anyone wants to chase the numbers game, perhaps we’re not the experience they’re after? I dunno.

 

And FYI, for amount of stuff happening at once in a map you’ll be hard pressed to find a game that keeps the action higher. I literally have to stop playing every few rounds because my heart just can’t take it some times.

 

Remember, you can get out of your Titan and let it roam on AI mode – meaning there can be 12 Pilots wallrunning around, 12 Titans stomping below, and dozens of AI doing their thing.

 

Oh, and I keep seeing people thinking we’ve got “bots” when we talk about AI. Thats not how they are. The AI in Titanfall are not replacements for human players. Our playercount is not 6v6 because of AI – AI play their own role in the game and are a different class of character in the game.

It seems that Respawn did extensive testing on the player count and a 12 player maximum is just what ended up working the best. My personal take on map design is that there’s a lot of close-quarters combat accentuated by tons of verticality. It sounds like sessions will contain 12 human players, up to 12 titans, and a slew of class-based AI battling it out simultaneously. In retrospect, things could get rather crazy by after all. There’s just over 60 days until Titanfall releases in North America. Until then, speculation will likely remain rampant.

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Dylan Zellmer

EIC at iGame Responsibly

Dylan splits time between games journalism, designing video games, and playing them. Outside of his deep involvement in the games industry, he enjoys It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Shameless, A Song of Ice and Fire, fitness, and family.

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