When it comes to Titanfall’s map packs, you will have to pay for those. Anything else that developer Respawn Entertainment decides to add to the game, such as new features or game modes, will be free. Game director Steve Fukuda made the announcement today on the game’s blog, as well as some of the features that are on the way.
Fukuda mentions that the studio wishes to improve what they call their “update tempo,” which is not just accelerating how often they update the game, but also improve the frequency and quality of communication with the community. He stated that they purpose of the Titanfall blog was to keep the community better in the loop about the updates and the time between the updates.
Fukuda broke down the coming changes into three categories. The first means to “tend the garden and the weeds out.”
This includes various tweaks and fixes done to the game, and some of the balancing to weapons, such as the Titan 40mm and Quad Rocket. Improvements in matchmaking also fall into this category. As he states: “This is all about the core health of the game.”
Next were “convenience features,” meant to life more pleasant in Titanfall, and they tend to relate to things players do or use repeatedly.
One update coming is the requested Party Colors feature, which will allow players to easily identify fellow party members both in-game and in the lobby. Other updates include the ability to rename custom layouts and to make custom loadouts for certain modes, a way to filter your challenges into categories such as “closest to complete”, and the ability to display the final scoreboard from the previous match in the Last Game Summery so players can review scores in the lobby.
The final category is “infrastructural features.”
This will include the first wave of custom Private Match options, which allows players to personally tweak their Private Match experience in a variety of ways. Respawn Studios wants to get these features out in early beta form, this way they can get player feedback and get the best possible result after multiple iterations. Competition-oriented features will also fall into this category.
Aside from these features, there is other content as well.
This includes new Burn Cards and Titan “Nose Art”, which are insignia that you can use to customize your titan. Fukuda also mentions that Respawn is planning new modes and mode variants. As announced at PAX East, a new map pack called “Expedition” is on the way this May, though players will have to pay for that.
Fukuda states: “Our plans for supporting Titanfall are simple.”
“We’ll keep you better informed between updates, and we’ll deliver free updates to you on a regular basis. We are constantly tweaking our support plans in response to your feedback, and although we cannot promise everything requested will go through, we are listening. Thanks again for playing Titanfall, and keep the feedback coming!”
I hope that there is some good content on the way for Titanfall.
I am on the fence about the map packs, but free content sounds good. I just hope that Respawn puts some great effort into the free modes and features. It is good to get content for free, rather than having to pay for everything that Respawn releases post-launch. I am not a big fan of most FPS, so I hold Titanfall at high standards. I am hoping that Respawn gives players more reason to keep playing Titanfall aside from map packs, and that the free content is substantial enough to keep the game entertaining.
