Electronic Arts announces its acquisition of Titanfall developer Respawn Entertainment, who also has a new Star Wars game and VR project in the works.
Electronic Arts has officially acquired Respawn Entertainment, the developer responsible for the Titanfall franchise. The acquisition will see EA paying $151 million for the initial purchase of Respawn as well as additional equity depending on certain terms.
While there were some questions recently about whether Electronic Arts was happy with Respawn’s contributions to the Titanfall franchise, this acquisition seems to put those concerns to rest. Despite strong reviews and a positive reception from gamers, Titanfall 2 failed to meet expectations sales-wise, but a bad release date is arguably to blame for those struggles.
The good news is that, in the press release announcing the Respawn acquisition, Electronic Arts mentions a new Titanfall game as one of the developer’s forthcoming projects. Whether that is Titanfall 3 is yet to be determined, but it is a safe bet that Respawn will build on the successes of its prior game, which boasted a surprisingly good FPS campaign and a fast-paced multiplayer.
But Titanfall isn’t the only project on Respawn’s plate; the studio also has a Star Wars game in development. This is likely the project that has the most weight behind it currently and will be a focal point for Respawn in the next few years. Given the studio’s pedigree, it might be safe to assume that the Star Wars project is an FPS, but there is already a strong contender on that front in Star Wars Battlefront. Perhaps Respawn is moving beyond the straight shooter genre to work on something new.
Speaking of something new, the studio also has a VR project in the works. Unfortunately, all Respawn is willing to say about this new VR game is that it is “super secret” and Oculus is involved.
In a lot of cases, a major studio acquisition like this is met with some surprise or even some skepticism, but considering how closely Electronic Arts worked with Respawn it was only a matter of time. Granted, after Titanfall 2 some might have thought Respawn was on shaky ground, but that was before they were announced as working on a new Star Wars project and a VR game with Oculus. Let’s hope that this is the start of a positive partnership.
