Respawn to Titanfall players: ‘Help is coming’

Generally, when games come to Steam after exclusive stints on other storefronts, it’s a cause for celebration. In the case of Titanfall, however, the opposite was largely true. Despite being very well regarded—our 86% review from 2014 called it "the most exciting multiplayer shooter in recent years"—user reviews on Steam are "mixed," and "very negative" over the past 30 days.

The problem is a lack of functional servers: The original Titanfall is multiplayer only, and without servers the game is effectively unplayable. The core issue, as broken down in this Reddit megathread, is that Titanfall suffers from numerous unpatched vulnerabilities that can be used to crash or overload servers and disconnect players.

"This is an issue that has been present for years, with crashes as far back as 2019, and the cheaters rampaging around lobbies (changing names to make it appear as if it's an infestation, which drove away many players from the game) going back even further," Redshield, founder of the Titanfall community group TF Remnant Fleet, told Eurogamer.

The problems existed while the game was exclusive to Origin and, to the great exasperation of people who'd like to play it, it remains in the Steam version. But perhaps not for much longer.

“We're aware of ongoing DDOS attacks affecting @Titanfallgame,” Respawn tweeted. “To the Titanfall community: Help is coming ASAP.”

Respawn declined to comment further, but the reaction to the tweet was largely positive. Some players criticized the studio for what they perceived as prioritizing a seven-year-old FPS over Apex Legends, but by and large it's excitement at the prospect of being able to get back into the cockpit of a Titan without being jerked around. 

As for why it's taking action now, seven years after Titanfall's release, Redshield speculated that more recent attacks on Titanfall 2 are what spurred the studio to action.