For a long time now, one potential Apex Legends feature has been on the minds of many fans – Titans. Prior to its surprise entry into the battle royale market, Respawn had established itself as a leader in the FPS genre with Titanfall. The series, which has since been placed on hiatus, shares the same fictional universe with its spiritual successor as well as several gameplay elements. While Apex Legends‘ cast, playable or otherwise, is wholly unique to Kings Canyon, many assets – including guns, environments, mechanics, etc – have been lifted wholesale from the former.
That major overlap has inevitably prompted fans to speculate over the potential inclusion of Titanfall‘s titular building-sized mechs, a prospect that the developer, at one time, had even confirmed it was considering. Since then, little has come of the topic and though leaks revealed via data-mining have added further fuel to the fire, Apex is still devoid of any pilotable war machines.
That silence has finally reached its end, however, via a recent update provided to Game Informer. Sorry, but it’s not good news, folks.
We prototyped it for like nine months during development, and we couldn’t get it to work well. Titans were created back in the day as a power item. As a sense of I am now a badass, don’t mess with me. That fantasy fulfilment is destroyed immediately in battle royale once you’ve balanced them to a point where they don’t ruin battle royale. We could never pull enough levers – how you get it, how strong it is, how fast it is, how big it is, what kind of weapons it has, when do you have it – all that kind of stuff. So I think for now, titans are just not a thing. We’re no longer considering it.
A crushing revelation, to say the least, but one that’s wholly justified, given the circumstances. Battle royales are, by their very nature, fiercely competitive and notoriously difficult to balance. Had Respawn thrown caution to the wind and introduced game-swinging Titans into the mix, maintaining any semblance of an even playing field would have been simply impossible.
So, no Titans for Apex Legends‘ standard modes, then, but all hope’s not lost just yet. Should Respawn choose to take a leaf out of Fortnite‘s book, there’s every possibility that some form of special limited-time event separate to the main game could feature the hulking mountains of metal. A stretch, for sure, but certainly not outside the realms of possibility.
We’ll see what the future brings but for now, all focus is on Apex Legends Season 2: Battle Charge. See here for all the details.