Titanfall Won’t be Ready for eSports at Launch

Respawn Entertainment’s Titanfall is riding a pretty tall wave of hype into its March release, but the mechanized first-person shooter won’t be able to satisfy all crowds at launch. Community manager Abbie Heppe recently told the Major Nelson blog that there are no current plans to support official competitive tournaments for the game.

“That really hasn’t been our focus. Our focus has been to get a really solid foundation out,” Heppe said. “A game that is really fun, that will attract players, and keep them playing for a really long time. That said, we have a TON of interest from the e-sports community, and I know we’re not going to be shipping with all the features that they’re going to be wanting in the game, but we’re in our first iteration.”

Sometimes it takes a few tries before a series becomes the perfect candidate for eSports, which is why Heppe is confident that something more could happen with Titanfall down the line.

“A lot of the games that have developed good e-sports features and the competitive community are ones that multiple iterations to get that done and to build in those things. So while that couldn’t be a priority for us here, we’re definitely listening to all of the feedback,” she continued. “We’re interested in what competitive players think when the game ships, and it’s definitely something we’ll look into, but not something that’s been our primary focus.”

Titanfall will launch on Xbox One and PC March 11, with the Xbox 360 version coming March 25.