NEWS - Saturday, June 22, 2013

No Titanfall single-player due to small team
Titanfall is one of the biggest releases on the gaming calendar for early next year, but its not coming from an especially big developer. Speaking with GamesIndustry International at E3, Respawn co-founder Vince Zampella explained how the games Microsoft exclusivity and multiplayer focus go hand-in-hand with the fledgling studios structure.
"For us, were a small startup studio," Zampella said. "Were 60-some developers. So for us to be able to focus on one platform [helps]. For us it was really helpful to focus on the core game and whats fun. Its scoped more adequately to what we have the power to do as a start-up studio."
Part of that scope means scrapping the single-player first-person shooter campaign template that Zampella helped define at Call of Duty developer Infinity Ward.
"We make these single-player missions that take up all the focus of the studio, that take a huge team six months to make, and players run through it in 8 minutes," Zampella said. "And how many people finish the single-player game? Its a small percentage. Its like, everyone plays through the first level, but 5 percent of people finish the game. Really, you split the team. Theyre two different games. Theyre balanced differently, theyre scoped differently. But people spend hundreds of hours in the multiplayer experience versus as little time as possible rushing to the end [in single-player]. So why do all the resources go there? To us it made sense to put it here. Now everybody sees all those resources, and multiplayer is better. For us it made sense."
As for how he feels working on a new entry in the first-person shooter category dominated by his old franchise, Call of Duty, Zampella downplayed the idea of the two games as direct competition.
"Honestly, were not shipping the same time as them," Zampella said. "Were going for something different. Were not gunning for Call of Duty. Were doing our thing. The important thing is to make sure what were doing is fun. Im OK with Call of Duty being big. I helped create it, so Im proud to see its something so big that it goes beyond me."
Titanfall is set for a spring 2014 release, while Call of Duty: Ghosts launches November 5.
Source: http://www.gamesindustry.biz
