Late yesterday evening Vince Zampella, founder of Respawn Studios, revealed on twitter that the Xbox 360 version of their upcoming shooter, TitanFall, had been outsourced to the third-party studio Bluepoint Games.
The 360 version is being done by the amazing team at Bluepoint Games.
— Vince Zampella (@VinceZampella) January 28, 2014
Now there is nothing particularly surprising about a company outsourcing a game’s development on a certain platform. This normally happens when the company in question doesn’t have the skills or resources to develop for that platform so they outsource to a company that does.
But what is really strange here is that Respawn have outsourced the Xbox 360 development of TitanFall to Bluepoint studios whose history of development is primarily on the PlayStation family of consoles. Bluepoint is the studio behind the recent ports of thatgamecompany’s PS3 game Flower and were in charge of the ports of the God of War Collection and The Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection also only on PS3. they did do the Metal Gear Solid HD collection on both Xbox 360 and PS3, but that’s it.
The choice seems strange. Bluepoint seems to be a competent port factory, and not to be overly harsh on Bluepoint but it’s not like their history of PlayStation titles has won heaps of awards and there isn’t a single shooter in here. With their lack of Xbox 360 experience as well as lack of experience with shooters, It really does seem to be a strange move that has me extremely worried about the quality of the Xbox 360 version.
Last Updated: January 28, 2014
TiMsTeR1033
January 28, 2014 at 11:03
I wouldn’t buy Titanfall on my Xbox 360 so no worries, unless of course all my buddies are playing it on live and it ends up being really good, which I hope but still feel it will be another Brink..
Kensei Seraph Moe Ninja
January 28, 2014 at 11:04
That header makes me want to see a Titanfall/Bioshock crossover.
Hammersteyn
January 28, 2014 at 11:05
Not to worry. Bluepoint only needs to make sure the servers caters for 6V6 games.
FoxOneZA
January 28, 2014 at 11:11
The Master Race measures their teraflops in XBox 360’s #trueStoryBros
oVg 60fps > 30fps
January 28, 2014 at 11:16
It does not matter if it is good or bad. It is an ON-LINE only game so they can make it whatever they want whenever they want.
Its a service.
Umar Break Dancing Cyborg
January 28, 2014 at 11:28
Every one of those ports was the best I’ve seen. MGS HD and SoC were both amazing and flawlessly done…I don’t think we should be that worried
Skyblue
January 28, 2014 at 12:46
Is anyone really going to play Titanfall on an Xbox 360?
CAE9872
January 28, 2014 at 12:48
In SA we won’t have a choice!
Skyblue
January 28, 2014 at 14:14
PC brother, preach it
Rhino Thrash
January 28, 2014 at 19:04
Believe it or not kids, most console people will be playing Titanfall on 360, because more people own 360s period.
Not everyone is slave to the industry and runs out at buys an unproven, glitchy, rushed out of production, non-backwards compatible, new console at launch just cause Microsoft tells you to. I always wait at least a year, cause they always release a better version for less money.
Skyblue
January 28, 2014 at 19:47
I agree. I won’t be touching any of the new consoles until some really compelling titles are released. Same as every console I have purchased since my Atari 2600. I will be giving Titanfall a go on PC though.
CAE9872
January 28, 2014 at 12:46
This one is a strange one. In most cases a cross-gen game can be good on both formats…just prettier on a newer console.
But this one also has me worried. I just don’t know if the 360 has the pure grunt to do what many of the trailers we have seen is showing off (and I assume those are all One trailers!).
Best analogy, and graphics aren’t everything but they help – if Killzone Shadowfall was on PS3 and PS4…it just wouldn’t look as good. Fundamentals the same yes, but after that its downhill for the PS3.
And then we have the developer issue – they are very competent team who have done great things on certain re-releases. But pretty much all on Sony machines. So how much time have they had to optimise their own getting use to the 360 architecture. It takes time surely.
One to watch of course…
Rhino Thrash
January 28, 2014 at 19:01
Believe it or not kids, most console people will be playing Titanfall on 360, because more people own 360s period.
Not everyone is slave to the industry and runs out at buys an unproven, glitchy, rushed out of production, non-backwards compatible, new console at launch just cause Microsoft tells you to. I always wait at least a year, cause they always release a better version for less money.
Titanfall could easily be the next “biggest dog” franchise in FPSs. EA would be shooting themselves in the foot, if the 360 version is anything less than awesome to keep people coming back for more.
Titanfall vs COD: Ghosts comparison from someone who actually played both
JJudas
January 30, 2014 at 00:05
Well said
JJudas
January 30, 2014 at 00:19
I’m proud to say I’m getting Titanfall for my xbox 360. I never buy a console this early in its release. & plus xbox one just isn’t that appealing to me right now. My xbox 360 is just fine for atleast another 6months. Idk much about how they make games but seriously, how “different” can titanfall be without it being a totally different game? I imagine the next gen version being a step ahead in graphics but thats it.
Shock
February 26, 2014 at 13:33
The game runs on the source engine so nothing really next gen there. I think people will be surprised at how good it will look and play.
Dmv soldier
February 6, 2014 at 04:40
Why all my buddies with xbox one ‘s always back playing the 360