Respawn admits Titanfall’s original Xbox exclusivity was “a bit of surprise”

When the original Titanfall first arrived on Xbox One there was a window of uncertainty surrounding its exclusivity. Many thought it might be timed but that was soon shut down, confining the game to Xbox.

At the time Vince Zampella tweeted this to a fan, suggesting the full exclusivity was as much news to him as it was gamers:

Always MS exclusive at launch, great partner and focus is good for a startup. EA made a deal for the rest, we only found out recently =(October 29, 2013

I got the chance to ask him about that tweet recently and he admitted, laughing that “it was a bit of surprise, yeah”. As it suggested the total exclusivity wasn’t something the studio was expecting. “It was always supposed to be an exclusive at launch, but we always assumed we would bring it to PlayStation”. In fact it was so much a surprise that Titanfall 2 producer Drew McCoy recalls that, “I think [Vince] let everyone know the same time [he] found out”.

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But it’s all good in the end, with Titanfall 2 finally coming to Xbox One and PS4, which means everyone gets to have fun this time. “For us it’s about [how] you spend so much of your life making these things, so the more people that can enjoy them the better,” explains Vince. “That’s really what it’s about. I understand that people are very loyal to one or the other, and we just want to give everybody that experience”.

And can get that experience on when the game comes out on October 28.

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I'm GamesRadar's Managing Editor for guides. I also write reviews, previews and features, largely about horror, action adventure, FPS and open world games. I previously worked on Kotaku, and the Official PlayStation Magazine and website.