Another case of insider info that was never intended to be public confirmation of anything causing blowback against a project that, IMO, doesn't deserve it at all.
I know it's both duty and passion on behalf of folks of Jason Schreier to keep us apprised of insider dealings and solid murmurs, and I love the guy for it, but doubling down on "I knew Titanfall 3 was being made for sure" is IMO really causing Titanfall's commercially meager fanbase to kind of cannibalize itself. It's my hope that being a solid Battle Royale is going to really reach out to an audience well beyond the squabbling Titanfall and backseat designer whining that we do as fans of the series (there was plenty of vocal blowback to the variety of changes made to Titanfall 2, for instance) will just get drowned out, and eventually Respawn just makes Titanfall 3 as THEY feel it should be.
All this nonsense about us deserving Titanfall 3 based on loyalty alone is stupid. Respawn's a talented developer and I respect them enough to let them do whatever the hell they want. I don't see them pursuing Battle Royale as a money-hungry desperation move at the cost of Titanfall 3 -- I think they just saw this brand new game design landing and felt passionate about putting their own spin on it and trusted fans would show up and be passionate about it too.
If Titanfall 3 was really ever happening, I trust Respawn would've told us publicly already, and they will communicate with us if Titanfall 3 gets back into production. Until then, IMO Apex Legends is great as far as Battle Royale games go (I've personally only enjoyed Blackout so far because I think PUBG is too clunky and Fortnite's building mechanics aren't my thing), it makes perfect sense that Titanfall 3 isn't happening (yet?) despite how badly I want to see it happen, and goddammit they have the opportunity to make the first great Star Wars game in a long, long time so I'm more invested in seeing that happen than watching Titanfall 3 release to an uninterested wider audience and possibly land Respawn in trouble as a studio.
Titanfall got blowback from audiences for its multiplayer only design. Titanfall 2 released between two juggernaut series sequels and the remainder of Titanfall fans loudly squabbled over the gameplay changes from the first game, which wasn't a good look to curious other folks (it just looked like a complete lack of confidence about the quality of the game for people on the outside looking in). Apex Legends is apparently a "tired" genre (that's only about 2 years old in the limelight, good grief) and is allegedly responsible for "cancelling" Titanfall 3 which is drawing the ire of the Titanfall fanbase.
Respawn can't seem to catch a break -- the response to their games often is so divisive that it seems to keep outsiders looking in from having confidence about investing their time and money into the games because we all just fucking cry about their games every time they release one. They've done nothing but amazing work as a studio so far, though.
Battle Royale's wider current appeal and what I trust to be designer savvy and passion about the genre that caused Respawn to throw their hat in the ring is probably the absolute best move they could've made as a studio. Landing the Star Wars gig and nailing it could get them out of this reputation they have for releasing games that people do nothing but bicker about.
