TL;DR If the game sucks or doesn't find an audience we probably won't see the mech genre return for quite some time, which sucks even more than their bizarre stance against story and single player.
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What I'm getting here is it's basically going to be Battlefield 2142, only browner. Hmm. Since the Battlefield people no longer make Battlefield(i.e. MP only) I can see how people might be interested. People other than me, obviously. There's just a few caveats that make me suspicious that this game is on a one way trip to failure, which would be terrible from my perspective.
1: Several of those games most famous for their multiplayer(CoD4, Halo) drew their players in through an amazing singleplayer experience.
2: The rest of the games with popular multiplayer only gameplay tend to either be budget titles(Team Fortress was part of a bundle) or Free to Play(TF2, the new Tribes), while the older full priced Battlefield 1942-esque games have simply gone away. Despite that, I keep getting the very strong feeling Respawn plans for a $60 release.
3: That 5% figure may be true, I have heard it before, but it is also irrelevant, at least from the sales perspective they seem to be espousing. Skyrim, Bioshock Infinite, Dead Space, Dark Souls, etcetera fraking etcetera.
4: The head in the sand mentality over why games fail they're showing here is concerning for a business that relies on predicting customer desires. EA has shown this before when they decided their MoH:W game wasn't popular because people didn't understand it, not because it sucked and everyone knew it. Seriously, look up their whiny press release on why they're not making more MoH games. It's hilarious.
5: The multiplayer only arena is not only bursting with quality titles already, next gen actually seems to be bringing in even stiffer competition. Bungie's Destiny and Red5's Firefall both have gorgeous aesthetics, interesting, unique gameplay, and a huge emphasis on story and player choice, whereas Titanfall only has us on the gameplay front. It's aesthetics were already a by the numbers CoD look. Cutting out story, if that is what they plan to do, puts it even further behind other titles with potentially fuller experiences and an already established audience.
6: The utter failure of the crowdfunding attempt for the multiplayer focused Heavy Gear sequel, the series which practically invented the fast paced robot combat genre, suggests heavily that the core audience won't be interested in Titanfall, meaning they'll need to really win over a new core audience. Easily said, but not easy to do, especially if they're so out of touch with gamers they can't believe single player games are worth the effort.
7: Storytelling potential is the medium's strongest selling point! Cinema, television, poetry, art, and music are all excellent in their unique way, but they are also all bite sized. None of them are able to replicate what literature is capable of. Movies almost always follow a three act structure, while books can easily encompass dozens. Video games are the only other medium where eight hours is generally considered to be a good minimum you should expect from a full experience, with bite sized games showing up to keep things interesting just like books. For a seeming majority of the industry(including, apparently, Respawn) to not understand the jaw dropping potential of their own medium is more than a little disquieting to those of us who want games to not only match but exceed all other forms of art.
8: Dismissing the supposed 5% as only rushing through the story and the rest as hating story driven campaigns, instead of what I think is more likely, stopping to smell the flowers so much you never quite want to leave, is a serious charge. Unfortunately, as Sterling pointed out in his videos, focus testing is used more for ill than any useful purpose. When Ken Levine tried to find out whether his box art would be appealing to gamers, he went to a frat. How large a percentage of the gaming community does one or even a few highly exclusionary organizations only a small number join really represent the reality of the industry? Did it ever represent us? A certain subset of game companies focusing on group play is fine, social gamers deserve a good experience just like everyone else, but when so many start making these outright attacks on story we run the risk of becoming the new comic book industry: almost completely irrelevant to any serious consideration. Comic books are mostly seen as being about boobs and fight scenes, something they largely deserve. To have gaming relegated to a mere juvenile pleasure when I have personally experienced some of the greatest storytelling moments within it seems like an outright crime to me.
9: The thing I find most immediately concerning as a Heavy Gear fan is, if Titanfall does turn out to be a failure, will the industry leaders recognize why, or will EA do what they did with MoH and MS just did with their Xbunny: whine and take their ball home. That would be the worst part. Even if the developers are kinda morons, I'd rather their game be of high quality and find a solid audience because that would mean I'm more likely to get the games I really want.
As a PC gamer, I'm seeing what I can only describe as a Renaissance. Space sim fans, myself included, recently helped Chris Roberts get $10 million in funding for his new game, the return of point and click adventures means we're finally getting the ending to The Longest Journey, Good Old Games' success means we're seeing rereleases of fondly remembered classics, some of the Battlezone people are on the cusp of releasing a spiritual successor, and I remain convinced that we're seeing so many platformers because Cave Story led the charge back in 2004 and got people like me back into games. Hell, I've recently spent my time on Tyrian2000, a freaking DOS game!
So, when I see the people at Respawn making statements riddled with dishonesty and self deception, I get concerned. Right now, they're holding the genre hostage, as the only company bringing a full fledged mech game to the market. Can they really bring about a return to form for the Mech genre like that? I honestly have no clue, but it does make me wish someone else was doing it.
