News

All eyes are on Titanfall right now, as the sci-fi shooter from the creators of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare nears release. In the latest info-burst, developer Respawn has confirmed that multiplayer matches will be limited to 6 versus 6, because that was the lobby size that proved to be most fun and balanced in playtesting.

"6v6 is max player count," read the tweet from Respawn founder Vince Zampella. "Turned out to be the best balance with AI for us."

It's a move away from the current trend towards bigger and bigger matches, as typified by Battlefield 4's epic 64-player arenas. The difference in Titanfall is that each match also involves AI characters, who will support the human players. Producer Drew McCoy took to the NeoGAF forums to explain more.

"We tried a huge amount of playercounts (all the way down to 1v1 and up quite high) and designed the maps, gameplay mechanics, and entire experience around which played best", he said. "And FYI, for amount of stuff happening at once in a map you'll be hard pressed to find a game that keeps the action higher. I literally have to stop playing every few rounds because my heart just can't take it some times. Remember, you can get out of your Titan and let it roam on AI mode - meaning there can be 12 Pilots wallrunning around, 12 Titans stomping below, and dozens of AI doing their thing."

He also warned fans not to think of the AI characters as traditional shooter bots. "The AI in Titanfall are not replacements for human players," he insisted. "Our playercount is not 6v6 because of AI - AI play their own role in the game and are a different class of character in the game."

Titanfall hits Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC in March.