Electronic Arts cancels secret Apex Legends spin-off

Per a report by Jason Schreier of Bloomberg, Respawn Entertainment and Electronic Arts have canceled Titanfall Legends, a secret Titanfall 2 and Apex Legends spin-off project.

The news came after EA announced that it would stop the development of the Apex Legends and Battlefield mobile games. The publisher also pushed back Respawn’s highly anticipated Star Wars: Jedi Survivor.

Schreier reported that a recent memo from upper management said EA would make every effort to place the roughly 50-person team behind the game within the company.

People acquainted with the situation said those who cannot be relocated would be offered severance packages and laid off.

According to the report, Titanfall Legends was supposed to be a single-player game set in the same universe as Apex Legends and Titanfall. Even though the game had not been publicly announced, EA has dropped several hints about it.

Mohammad Alavi, a prominent developer, headed the project until early 2022 before he left the company. For seven years before his departure, he worked at Infinity Ward, creating legendary missions like “No Russian” and “All Ghillied Up” for the Call of Duty series.

In July of 2021, Alavi posted a tease for the game he was developing on Twitter, describing it as a “whole new single-player adventure” from Respawn Entertainment.

The cancellation news spread widely after former GamesBeat editor Jeff Grubb mentioned it during a live stream on the Giant Bomb Twitch channel.

Grubb explained this Respawn’s single-player project, first revealed in 2021, had been intended to deliver a Titanfall-style experience within a battle royale mode.

The 65-year-old journalist said that “Titanfall Legends was not Titanfall 3” because, contrary to popular belief, the third title of the series was never intended to be a sequel to Titanfall 2 but rather a brand-new, independent game featuring a single-player story and multiplayer modes.

According to Grubb, Respawn’s frequent leadership changes were the reason for the decision to scrap the game.

He said everything collapsed once Alavi left, and only a few of the original Respawn team members remained.

Many fans were disappointed by this announcement because they expected this single-player game to give them a different taste of the iconic franchise.

Several Twitter users also pointed out that the cancellation is a bad omen for Titanfall 3, which is still in development. Others on Reddit speculated that EA might redirect resources away from Apex Legends.

Features from scrapped project

Grub shared more details about the Apex/Titanfall game in the Twitch stream. He said the Titanfall-style movement ability would have been brought back, not as a temporary superpower but as a recurring game component.

According to Grubb, the designers had wanted players to use unique features like wall running rather than treat it like Call of Duty. In this single-player game, players would have, at least partly, been experiencing the world as seen through Commissioner Kuben Blisk’s eyes.

Grubb also said that some of the Apex Legends characters that fans are familiar with would have appeared mid-way through the game to provide fans with all the abilities needed to complete the campaign by granting players “special powers throughout the game.”

In addition, the spin-off would have used significant features from the Titanfall series, such as the Ark’s location.