The *Titanfall* community is once again reeling after Electronic Arts (EA) announced the cancellation of another incubation project at Respawn Entertainment, along with a wave of layoffs across several key teams including Apex Legends, Star Wars: Jedi, and EA Experience.
According to a report from Bloomberg, the now-canceled title—codenamed R7—was an extraction shooter set in the *Titanfall* universe. While not the long-awaited *Titanfall 3*, fans had hoped for any continuation of the beloved franchise that has been dormant since *Titanfall 2*'s release nearly a decade ago.
The emotional response from the fanbase has been intense. One player described their reaction vividly: “I just fell to my knees at Walmart,” while another simply wrote: “I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE.”
Another fan lamented, “How many more times will this happen before they finally give it up and leave us to our sorrow?” Yet, not all reactions were negative. Some members of the community believe that canceling this project could actually help preserve the legacy of *Titanfall* rather than risk tarnishing it with a poorly received entry.
“Best thing that could've happened as far as the continued existence of this franchise is concerned,” argued one Redditor. “A Titanfall extraction shooter would probably flop and the c-suite executives would say ‘see, the people just don't like Titanfall anymore,’ instead of the obvious reason being nobody asked for a Titanfall XTS.”
Another user agreed: “I’m fine with this one being canceled,” followed by a sarcastic jab: “Extraction shooter lmao. Good riddance.”
Frustration over the current trend of extraction shooters was also voiced by one player who said, “So sick and tired of 'extraction shooters'. They're so formulaic and boring. I don't want to loot bunch of useless shit and camp in an attic or sit in a bush for 20 minutes or risk getting shot moving through big open fields. Give me quick matches, wallrunning and titans blastin’.”
Others took a more neutral stance, with one summarizing: “Got sad. Read extraction shooter. Was literally okay.”
Approximately 100 positions were affected in this round of layoffs at Respawn, impacting individuals across development, publishing, and QA roles on *Apex Legends*. Additionally, smaller groups working on the *Jedi* team and two canceled incubation projects were also affected—one of which was previously reported back in March, and the other believed to be the recently revealed *Titanfall*-inspired extraction shooter.
These cuts are part of a broader pattern of restructuring within EA over the past few years. Earlier in 2025, BioWare underwent significant changes, with developers reassigned to other projects and some laid off. In 2023, around 50 roles were eliminated at BioWare, alongside an unspecified number at Codemasters. Then in 2024, EA implemented a larger-scale restructuring that led to approximately 670 company-wide job losses, including around two dozen at Respawn.
In 2023, it came to light that Respawn had worked seriously on *Titanfall 3* for about 10 months before shifting focus to *Apex Legends*. Mohammad Alavi, who served as narrative lead designer on *Titanfall 3* before its cancellation, shared insights into the project during an interview with The Burnettwork.
“Titanfall 2 came out, did what it did, and we were like, ‘Okay, we’re gonna make Titanfall 3,’ and we worked on Titanfall 3 for about 10 months, right? In earnest. We had new tech for it, multiple missions in development, and a first playable build that was on par—if not slightly better—than what we’d done before. But it wasn’t revolutionary, and that’s the key thing,” Alavi explained.
Despite early optimism, the multiplayer team struggled to create a compelling experience that wouldn’t burn players out quickly. Around the same time, the unexpected rise of PUBG in 2017 changed everything.
“People love Titanfall 2 multiplayer, but only a small number of people. Most players think it’s really good, but too intense—they burn out fast. The multiplayer team was struggling to fix that from Titanfall 1 to 2, then from 2 to 3,” Alavi recalled.
When developers began showing more interest in playing a Battle Royale version using *Titanfall 3* character classes rather than standard modes, the team made a pivotal decision: abandon *Titanfall 3* and pivot toward what would become *Apex Legends*.
“We literally canceled Titanfall 3 ourselves because we were like, ‘We can make this game, and it’s going to be Titanfall 2 plus a little bit better, or we can make this thing, which is clearly amazing.’”
Alavi concluded with a bittersweet reflection: “Don’t get me wrong, I will always miss having another Titanfall. I love that game. Titanfall 2 is my most crowning achievement. But it was the right call. Such a crazy cut that EA didn’t even know about it for another six months until we had a prototype up and running that we could show them!”
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