Titanfall 3? I’d Love It, but It Has to Be the Right Thing at the Right Time, Says Respawn CEO

Short of Half-Life 3, there's not that many elusive games fans would love to see announced more than Titanfall 3. Respawn Entertainment's first IP produced since its foundation did extremely well with the debut installment, selling over ten million copies in the first year. However, its sequel, Titanfall 2, launched in October 2016 squeezed right between DICE's Battlefield 1 and Infinity Ward's Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. Many surmised that Electronic Arts had made a mistake with the release window, sending the game to die.

Then, Respawn Entertainment dived into the burgeoning Battle Royale genre with Apex Legends, a Titanfall spin-off that dropped without too much fanfare in early 2019 but found enormous success going on to this very day. Right away, Respawn CEO Vince Zampella said Titanfall 3 was not in the works, but fans kept hoping.

In September 2020, an Apex Legends dataminer fueled those Titanfall 3 dreams once again. We eventually learned that there was indeed a single player game called Titanfall Legends in the works at Respawn, but it was canceled before the official announcement.

Now, it's time to get those hopes up for the umpteenth time as Respawn boss Vince Zampella told Barron's that he would love to see Titanfall 3, but it'd have to be the right thing at the right time.

We're not working on anything currently. I hate to say yes, then people latch onto that and then skewer you when it doesn't come. But I would love to see it happen is the real answer. There's no exact dedicated plans for that.

It has to be the right thing. It's such a beloved franchise for the fans and also for us. If it is not the right moment in time, the right idea, then it just doesn't make sense.

Apex Legends is the Titanfall universe, right? There's how do you do something that doesn't confuse people that are Apex fans but not necessarily Titanfall fans yet. It's a hard question to answer, but ultimately I would love to see something.

Unfortunately, Vince Zampella (also head of the Battlefield franchise now, in case you missed that memo) previously shared similar statements that eventually led nowhere. If Titanfall 3 is happening, it'll be years from now. Respawn is just about to release Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, which could be the second game of a trilogy if this title does as well as the first one financially, and they're also busy with a Star Wars first-person shooter (not to mention co-developing a Star Wars strategy game).

As they say, though, hope is the last thing to die.

Written by Alessio Palumbo