Betteridge's Law says "No." (Gaming)

by Kermit , Raleigh, NC, Monday, November 28, 2016, 16:05 (2926 days ago) @ CruelLEGACEY

Titanfall 2 got a second chance, is getting high review scores across the board, and it's still adding up to disappointing sales numbers, which doesn't help the notion of $60 standalone AAA games.

I'd blame that on the publisher. Seriously? Launch it smackdab between BF1 and CoD? The hell were you guys thinking?

That was my thought as well. And really, if we're looking at it purely in terms of "what is best for Titanfall 2", then clearly EA did the game a disservice.
But Jeff Gertsman at Giant Bomb mentioned an interesting theory: he was wondering if EA is focusing more on the long term, "big picture" competition with CoD. He presented the idea that BF1 and TF2 coming out back-to-back ahead of CoDIF could act as a sort of "1->2 punch". For EA, the biggest challenge they face when trying to dethrone CoD is that massive group of players that buy COD every year automatically because all their friends are doing the same. His thinking is that by releasing BF1 and TF2 right before CoDIF, EA could be trying to tip the wavering CoD fan base over the edge and get them to simply "try something else".
"You like a more grounded, military shooter? Here's BF1. You like the futuristic sci-fi thing? Here's TF2".

From that point of view, it might not be such a bad plan. BF1 has received positive press, and TF2 is the critical darling of the year so far. Meanwhile CoDIF seems to continue the trend of a declining (but still very strong) franchise. It looks like even the mainstream "CoD every year" crowd is starting to look for something new.

I bought the bundle, which I found very attractive, and it means it's even less likely that I'll buy COD, although I'm not a regular buyer of the franchise regardless. Unlike most, I was actually more interested in this one than in the last few, but in my case time is great limiter.