Fans of the beloved Titanfall series are grappling with the recent announcement that EA has canceled another incubation project at Respawn Entertainment, alongside laying off numerous employees across its incubation, Apex Legends, Star Wars: Jedi, and EA Experience teams. According to Bloomberg, the canceled game, codenamed R7, was an extraction shooter set in the Titanfall universe. While this wasn't the long-awaited Titanfall 3 sequel, the news has left many fans disheartened, especially since Titanfall 2, released nearly a decade ago, still lacks a follow-up.

"I just fell to my knees at Walmart," said one devastated player, while another expressed their frustration more bluntly: "I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE."

However, not all reactions were negative. Some fans believe that canceling an extraction shooter set in the Titanfall universe might have been beneficial for the franchise's future. "Best thing that could've happened as far as the continued existence of this franchise is concerned," posited one redditor. "A Titanfall extraction shooter would probably flop and the c-suite executives would say 'see, the people just don't like Titanfall anymore,' instead of the obvious reason being nobody asked for a Titanfall XTS."

"I’m fine with this one being canceled," responded another, with someone else following up with: "Extraction shooter lmao. Good riddance."

"So sick and tired of 'extraction shooters'. They're so formulaic and boring. I don't want to loot bunch of useless shit and camp in an attic or sit in a bush for 20 minutes or risk getting shot moving thru big open fields. Give me quick matches, wallrunning and titans blastin'," suggested a fan, voicing a preference for the fast-paced action that defined the Titanfall series.

"Got sad. Read extraction shooter. Was literally okay," summarized another, indicating a mixed but ultimately accepting reaction to the news.

The layoffs at Respawn affected approximately 100 jobs, impacting roles in development, publishing, and QA on Apex Legends, as well as smaller teams working on the Jedi project and two canceled incubation projects, one of which was reported on back in March, and the other believed to be the extraction shooter set in the Titanfall universe.

These cuts are part of a broader pattern of layoffs at EA over the past few years. Earlier in the year, EA restructured BioWare, moving developers to other projects and laying off others. In 2023, it eliminated 50 jobs at BioWare and an unknown number at Codemasters. In 2024, a larger restructuring led to 670 workers being laid off company-wide, including around two dozen at Respawn.

In 2023, it came to light that Respawn Entertainment had worked on Titanfall 3 "in earnest" for 10 months before shifting focus to Apex Legends. Mohammad Alavi, who was set to be the narrative lead designer on Titanfall 3 before its cancellation, shared insights into the development process with The Burnettwork.

“Titanfall 2 came out, did what it did, and we were like, ‘Okay, we’re gonna make Titanfall 3,’ and we worked on Titanfall 3 for about 10 months, right? In earnest, right?" Alavi explained. "We had new tech for it, we had multiple missions going, we had a first playable, which was on par to be just as good if not better than whatever we had before, right? But I’ll make this clear: incrementally better, it wasn’t revolutionary. And that’s the key thing, right?"

Alavi noted that while the team felt decent about the progress, it lacked the revolutionary feel of Titanfall 2. The challenges were compounded by issues in the multiplayer team, who struggled to create an experience that wouldn't quickly burn out players. "The multiplayer team was having a hell of a time trying to fix the multiplayer, because a lot of people love the multiplayer. People love Titanfall 2 multiplayer,” Alavi said. "But the people who love Titanfall 2 multiplayer is a very small number of people. And most people play Titanfall 2 multiplayer and think it’s really good, but it’s just too much. It’s cranked up to 11, and they burn out a bit fast."

The situation was further complicated by the rise of the Battle Royale genre, particularly with the release of PUBG in 2017. Respawn developers found themselves more drawn to a Battle Royale map using Titanfall 3 classes than the standard multiplayer modes they were developing. This led to a pivotal decision: "We literally canceled Titanfall 3 ourselves ’cause we were like, ‘We can make this game, and it’s going to be Titanfall 2 plus a little bit better, or we can make this thing, which is clearly amazing.’"

Alavi concluded, "And don’t get me wrong, I will always miss having another Titanfall. I love that game. Titanfall 2 is my most crowning achievement, but it was the right call. That is a crazy cut. Such a crazy cut that EA didn’t even know about it for another six months until we had a prototype up and running that we could show them!”