9 Reasons The Odds Were Stacked Against Titanfall 2

When Titanfall launched in March 2014, it did so as a multiplayer game. It had a nominal campaign, but as little more than a series of multiplayer maps stitched together with a light narrative thread, that felt like an afterthought. The audience Respawn was targeting was very clear: it wanted a share of the huge multiplayer FPS scene, and the developer’s ambition and pedigree put the genre’s two great pillars, Battlefield and Call of Duty, firmly in its sights.

But that was 2014. In 2016, there’s a new kid in town – and its name is Overwatch. And however much Blizzard’s superb multiplayer-only shooter may have coaxed FPS newcomers into the warm bosom of this relatively hardcore genre, its massive success has also eaten into the existing player bases of its rivals (a term we’re using loosely, given that Activision Blizzard own both CoD and Overwatch).

Blizzard’s trademark polish, along with a particularly responsive series of balance tweaks and free content updates, has helped the game to stay almost as compelling an experience six months into its life as it was at launch. It means Overwatch has created and retained a very large audience – and while CoD and Battlefield can probably take the hit, it's not good news for the underdog.