10 Times Publishers Sabotaged Their Own Video Games

8. Releasing Titanfall 2 In Between 2017's Biggest Shooters - EA

BATTLEFIELD 1 titanfall 2
EA

Jumping to another Respawn-helmed game this time, and perhaps the most underrated effort of the current console generation.

The first Titanfall was a huge undertaking on Respawn's behalf. The studio, founded in the wake of Infinity Ward co-creators Jason West and Vince Zampella being dismissed by Activision, was determined to offer a new take on the already saturated FPS market - and they did just that. The first Titanfall showcased the exciting new course that the former Infinity Ward founders were heading on, but with it being an Xbox and PC exclusive, its reach was somewhat limited.

Thankfully, EA greenlit a sequel - aptly titled Titanfall 2 - that released on PC, Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 in 2017. It did what all great sequels do and innovated in all the right areas, delivering a single-player story to go alongside Respawn's compelling multiplayer. It was bigger, bolder and much better, but while Titanfall 2 garnered near universal acclaim from critics, the buzz generated from its launch wasn't enough to unsettle two other titans of the FPS genre - Call of Duty, and Battlefield.

Bizarrely, EA decided that the best time for Titanfall 2 to launch would be slap-bang in the middle of Battlefield 1 and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. We're not talking months apart here either; the game literally released about a week after Battlefield and only a week before Infinite Warfare.

Sales were reportedly underwhelming, and EA only had itself to blame.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and the Golden Age of Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled.