A new Bloomberg (opens in new tab) The report states that Electronic Arts has canceled development of a new game based on the Apex Legends and Titanfall series that was under development at Respawn Entertainment.
The report, which cites three sources, says the canceled project was a single-player game codenamed Titanfall Legends set in the shared Apex/Titanfall universe. It was reportedly directed by Mohammad Alavi, until his departure from the studio in 2022.
This would presumably be the project that Alavi teased on Twitter (opens in new tab) in July 2021. “We’re developing a brand new single-player adventure from Respawn Entertainment,” he said at the time. “We are a small, but ambitious team with a history of dreaming big and making a splash.”
Alavi’s LinkedIn (opens in new tab) The page points to the same thing, saying he was “creative director on an all-new singleplayer adventure from Respawn Entertainment” before this departure. Before that, he spent 10 years at Respawn as lead narrative designer and design director on Apex Legends, and nearly seven years before that as a senior designer on Titanfall.
This story naturally fueled speculation (or hope) that the new game was Titanfall 3, but unfortunately the speculation is all it adds up to: Alavi never revealed the nature of the project he was working on, and Respawn didn’t give fans anything more of Titanfall. keep to “never say never” (opens in new tab) platitudes.
But the job listings in Respawn (opens in new tab) as of 2022 it seemed to be pointing in a different direction. The unveiling was for something called the Apex Universe FPS Incubation Project, described as “a brand new Respawn single-player adventure.” Apex Legends was built outside of the Titanfall setting, and naturally some die-hard fans held out hope that Respawn was trying to camouflage a new Titanfall game in the works. But it doesn’t overlook the fact that this new work was to take place in the “peak universe”, which is seen by many as a substantial change in vocabulary.
The Bloomberg report says there were about 50 people working on the game when it shut down. EA will try to move some of them to other positions in the company, but those who cannot be placed elsewhere will be fired.
Whatever that game was, it’s not the only Respawn project to get a boost: EA also announced yesterday that Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has been delayed until April 28 (opens in new tab), in order to “reach the level of polish our fans deserve.” Development of the mobile versions of Apex Legends and Battlefield has also stopped (opens in new tab).