Titanfall PS4 1

The advent of the so-called industry insider – forum posters who build up a reputation among online communities such as NeoGAF for spilling the beans on secret information – means that the rumour mill is harder to navigate than ever these days. It’s always been difficult to pick the real leaks from the rubbish, but the web is a minefield of unattributable assertions these days – a challenge evidenced by the increasing credibility of clearly bogus speculation such as Sony’s supposedly leaked E3 press conference.

One such story that’s been doing the rounds of late is that Titanfall is coming to the PlayStation 4 after all. A rumourmonger named Tidux – who apparently leaked details pertaining to the next-gen platform’s most recent firmware update before they were announced – revealed the tidbit on Twitter, stating that a build of the game is up on running on the Japanese giant’s supercharged device as we type. We’re not interested in trying to crosscheck the shady character or his sources, but we are curious if it could happen.

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Titanfall PlayStation 4 1

Mega publisher EA Games stated late last year that the first-person shooter will be exclusive to the Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PC for the “life of the title”. Judging by Vince Zampella’s reaction to the announcement in October, this wasn’t supposed to be the case. “Always Microsoft exclusive at launch, great partner and focus is good for a startup,” the Respawn Entertainment boss wrote on Twitter. “EA made a deal for the rest, we only found out recently.” He attached a sad face emoticon to the end of that message, emphasising his displeasure.

Indeed, speculation suggests that the release was only supposed to be exclusive for a year, before deploying on the PS4 – and, presumably, the PlayStation 3 – twelve or so months later. It would seem that Microsoft upped its business negotiations in order to lock the title down, although journalist Geoff Keighley’s uber in-depth Final Hours of Titanfall publication paints a slightly different picture, suggesting that EA needed a first-party to invest in order to keep the project alive. We’re not entirely sure that we buy that narrative based on the timeline of events, but it is what it is.

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So, why have rumours regarding a PlayStation version of the futuristic foray all of a sudden started to reappear? Well, it’s one of the hottest games of the year, so it’s unsurprising that people are eager to play it on Sony’s currently more popular console – but there are theories that could support the possibility of a port. The "exclusive for the life of the title” comment has always fascinated us, as it seems very carefully selected. Would a hypothetical ‘Ultimate Edition’ sidestep that statement, for example? After all, that would technically be a different release, right?

It’s also possible that EA may have included some kind of get out clause depending on the title’s performance. We know that the game sold 925,000 physical copies across the PC and Xbox One throughout March in North America – an impressive number, but perhaps not the screaming success that everyone expected prior to release. To add to that line of speculation, the publisher’s been incredibly vague with regards to global figures, suggesting that the numbers aren’t quite big enough to make a splash.

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Last but not least, the third-party publisher will be aware of the fact that there are seven million PS4 consoles out there yearning for new content – and that number seems to be snowballing at a pace far faster than the Xbox One. It’s impossible to know the specifics of the contract between Microsoft and EA, but the latter is a shrewd organisation, and we can’t see it willingly missing out on money that it could have made. In that sense, if there’s a way around the contract, we reckon that it would exploit it.

Alas, this is all empty speculation until proven otherwise, and we suspect that it will probably lead to a dead end. While we’re hesitant to trust so-called industry insiders, we can see there being some truth to Tidux’s comments; we daresay that in an office somewhere, there is a poorly optimised build of Titanfall running on the PS4. However, even if that's accurate, we reckon that it's more likely to be a case of Respawn Entertainment laying the foundations for a sequel on Sony’s format – and with that, there’ll be no question of it skipping the Japanese giant’s machine.

Do you think that Titanfall will deploy on the PS4, or do you reckon that you'll have to wait for the game’s inevitable sequel to play it on one of Sony’s systems? Are you even interested in sampling the first-person affair, or is it not really your cup of mechanical grease? Drop a titan in the comments section below.

Do you wish that you could play Titanfall on PS4? (68 votes)

  1. Yes, it looks very fun37%
  2. I’m not bothered44%
  3. No, it’s not for me19%

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