2019-04-01_Official_Xbox_Magazine

Heavy

duty

The bad news? Respawn has

confirmed that Titanfall 3 is not on

the cards – a painful revelation for

anyone who enjoyed Titanfall 2’s

tight, varied multiplayer and hugely

creative campaign. Instead, the

studio’s focusing on new takes on the

setting, including Apex Legends, but

also an unrevealed project teased by

developer Vince Zampella on Twitter,

due later this year. This was later

reiterated by EA head Andrew Wilson

during an earnings call, who referred

to it as “a premium game... that is a

new twist on the Titanfall universe”,

and said there would be more revealed

in the coming months.

Full speed ahead

The same call also revealed a couple

of new titles on the horizon – by April

2020, sequels to both Need For Speed

and Plants Vs Zombies are due.

The former isn’t surprising, as

developer Ghost Games has released

a new entry in the long-running racing

series every two years since Rivals in

2013. We’d hope the studio’s trying
      something a little different this year,
      however, given the decidedly iffy
      quality of 2015’s Need For Speed and
      2017’s Need For Speed Payback.
      A new Plants Vs Zombies game is a
      little more unexpected. It’s likely a new
      entry in the Garden Warfare spin-off
      series, which uses the series’ leafy
      and undead characters as the cast
      of an online multiplayer third-person

Lost stars and

rising legends

This month’s ups and downs for Electronic Arts,

from its smash hit new battle royale, to yet

another Star Wars cancellation

GOING

APEX

Only a few months in, 2019 is

already proving an eventful year for

Electronic Arts. We’ve seen a flurry

of news recently, both good and

bad – but where does it all leave the

controversial videogame giant?

Let’s start with Respawn

Entertainment. Founded by two of the

original creators of Call Of Duty, the

studio is best known for the Titanfall

games and, despite what seemed

to be the commercial failure of both

entries in the series (though they were

critically acclaimed), it was acquired

by EA in 2017.

Now that investment seems to be

paying dividends. On 4 February, the

studio surprised us all by announcing

and then immediately releasing

Apex Legends, a free-to-play battle

royale FPS loosely set in the Titanfall

universe (check out our review on

p82). It’s been an incredible overnight

success. Within eight hours of launch

it had one million unique players; at

time of writing, just a week later, it’s

up to 25 million.

In fact, it’s looking like enough

of a smash hit to single-handedly

turn EA’s recent fortunes around.

The company’s stock price has been

plummeting for months, taking its

most recent dip following a shaky

earnings report that revealed

disappointing sales for Battlefield V.

But within a week, Apex Legends sent

it soaring back up to its highest point

in 2019 so far.

Respawn
Entertainment was
founded by Vince
Zampella and Jason
West. The two led the
way for the original
Call Of Duty, as well
as later entries,
including the
genre-defining
Modern Warfare. But
ultimately they were
forced out of Infinity
Ward after Activision
bought the studio,
following a
particularly messy
internal dispute.

ELECTRONIC ARTS INSIDER

THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 009