9 Reasons The Odds Were Stacked Against Titanfall 2

Success builds. In gaming, a sequel’s sales are often directly affected by the popularity of its predecessor and the word of mouth generated as a result. The more people who fall in love with your game, the more people they’ll recommend it to their friends – and that helps to grow the potential audience for a sequel. In short, exposure is crucial.

But platform exclusivity limits exposure. Titanfall was announced as an Xbox and PC exclusive at E3 2013, back when Microsoft and EA were getting pretty snuggly. EA was betting big on Xbox dominating the next generation of consoles.

That Christmas, Sony and Microsoft’s new machines went head to head, and the former nudged in front, gaining a lead which it has held ever since. EA backed the wrong horse.

It wasn’t all bad news. During that early dearth of quality Xbox One games, Titanfall became a must-buy, and sales were buoyant as a result. But it built no player base on PS4 – and that meant Titanfall 2 released without a pre-existing fan community on 2016’s dominant console.