It is official: The shooter Titanfall from 2014 will be removed from sale. The fan favorite has long struggled with hackers, and soon it will no longer be found in stores. Players are mourning now, but they are not surprised.
What is Titanfall? The shooter is the first major title from Respawn Entertainment, which was founded in 2010 by former CoD developers and belongs to the publisher Electronic Arts.
- Titanfall was very well received by fans at the time, selling over 10 million units (via ign.com) and managed to win a place in the hearts of numerous players.
- The shooter has a futuristic setting and mixed FPS action with mech battles.
- Players could fight across the map using grappling hooks and parkour or be on the move in their huge Titans. These are mechs that have various attributes and weapons.
In 2016, Titanfall 2 followed, which was also very well received and laid the groundwork for the 2019-released battle royale Apex Legends, which is set in the Titanfall universe but has no Titans.
However, a few years after release, a difficult time followed for Titanfall 1 and 2, which continues to this day. Hackers invaded and caused frustration. Now the first part is disappearing from sale and all shops.
When is it happening? Until March 1, 2022, Titanfall will still be available. After that, you won’t be able to buy the shooter.
Titanfall will no longer be sold – Are hackers to blame?
What happened? For some time now, Titanfall has been plagued by severe DDoS attacks by hackers. This ruined the game for many players because there is no offline mode in the first Titanfall.
While Titanfall 2 hasn’t been hit as hard by the issue, the situation in Titanfall 1 has been pretty poor for a while now. In 2019, it became known that a hacker was causing havoc in the multiplayer of both shooters.
The individual or individuals responsible are ruining the fun for the remaining player base and making the online modes nearly unplayable. According to players, this is still the case today.
- The hacker(s) use exploits and scripts and fill sessions with bots.
- Thus, it is impossible for many players to find a session in the player search.
- The hackers even prevent the creation of private sessions.
- It is currently impossible to start a multiplayer match.
Respawn reported at the time, when the problems became known, that they would address the issue and seek a solution. However, nothing has happened yet. The decision seems to have been made to stop selling Titanfall, at the very least.
Are hackers the reason? Whether that is the case remains open. Officially, the hacker attacks have not been mentioned. We asked EA for a statement and received a response: They will not comment on community speculation.
However, the community still sees a connection. Just last July, Apex Legends was affected, with a direct reference to Titanfall.
Hacker attack on Apex Legends, allegedly to save Titanfall
What happened? In July 2021, Apex Legends was plagued by similar and other problems. Hackers attacked the servers and temporarily brought the player search to a standstill. These attacks altered, for example, the descriptions and titles of the in-game playlists of the shooter.
There were also various messages that displayed the hackers’ messages. It stated, among other things: “TF1 is being attacked, so Apex will be too.” The website “SAFETITANFALL” is promoted. The hacker attack is obviously related to Titanfall.
Part of the attack was also a DDoS attack, preventing some players from playing temporarily. The hacker(s) claimed to want to save Titanfall and that they had unsuccessfully tried to draw the developers’ attention to the issue.
Thus, desperate measures were taken to create this attention. There were also rumors at that time that the hackers of Titanfall 1 themselves were behind this attack and only wanted to cause further chaos.
Now, at least, it seems that a reaction has been made in not selling Titanfall anymore. Players mourn the shooter but are not surprised.
Players find it a pity, “but at least Titanfall 2 remains”
How fans are reacting: Many players react sadly; the respective post on the official Titanfall subreddit has nearly 20,000 upvotes (via reddit.com), but hardly anyone is surprised. After the ongoing issues and the lack of response from the developers, it was only a matter of time for many.
Most can live with it, as Titanfall 2 remains available in stores and is not quite as heavily impacted by the problems. Rather, a general worry is spreading that the chances for Titanfall 3 might not be good.
Because some fans believe: If Respawn does not even care about the older games of Titanfall and only supports Apex Legends, how likely is a new Titanfall?
Ultimately, many are simply saying goodbye and hoping that Titanfall will someday receive the love from Respawn that it deserves in the eyes of the players.
But what do you think about it? Do you find the decision correct? Did you also enjoy Titanfall, or have you never played the shooter?
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