Mass layoffs at EA games have killed our hopes of a beloved video game franchise's return

The gaming industry has been hit by more layoffs, and if you thought 2024 was bad enough when some 14,600 employees were shown the door, 2025 has continued this unfortunate trend. As more developers crumble under the weight of underperforming games and bullish publishers, a giant of the gaming scene has been struck by a mass exodus.

Electronic Arts is about as big as they come as a publisher, boasting major IPs like The Sims, Battlefield, and Mass Effect. While some franchises are alive and well, spare a thought for Titanfall.

Respawn Entertainment delivered the first Titanfall in 2014, giving us a first-person shooter where players climbed behind the controls of giant mechs and waged war in the troubled outer space colonies of the Frontier. With the first game being a hit, it was no surprise that Titanfall 2 was quickly put into production. Whereas the first game was multiplayer only, Titanfall 2 was praised for adding a single-player campaign and was seen by many as an improvement on the original. Sadly, the 2016 sequel underperformed commercially, and the idea of Titanfall 3 has been left in limbo.

Respawn hasn't left the Frontier behind, but it's arguably been a victim of its own success. The boom of the battle royale genre saw Apex Legends take off, and with Respawn also focusing on the Star Wars: Jedi games, there's been little movement on Titanfall 3.

As confirmed by Bloomberg, EA has just been hit by a swathe of layoffs that see up to 400 positions being made redundant. The Respawn team has been hit particularly hard, with 100 of its staff apparently being laid off.

If this wasn't tough enough, the outlet reports how a Titanfall game that had been in development is another casualty of the gaming layoffs. Spokesperson Justin Higgs admitted: "As part of our continued focus on our long-term strategic priorities, we’ve made select changes within our organization that more effectively aligns teams and allocates resources in service of driving future growth.”

The Titanfall game was code-named 'R7' and was said to be an extraction shooter set in the same universe as the mainline games and Apex Legends. Those close to the project say it wasn't anywhere near being released, but alas, we'll likely never know what could've been.

Respawn confirmed that it had "made the decision to step away from two early-stage incubation projects and make some targeted team adjustments."

Details on the mysterious 'other' project are thin on the ground, although it's said to have been canceled earlier in 2025.

Some have run with the idea that Titanfall 3 was going to be the mentioned extraction shooter, although there's no official word that this was the case. Still, that hasn't stopped gamers from mourning the supposed death of a third Titanfall.

Taking to X, one person lamented: "Just talked to a friend about how great Titanfall 3 could've been, took a nap and woke up to this f**king shit... Man f**k EA.”

Responding to Respawn's lengthy statement, another added: "I’m not reading all that. Give us Titanfall 3."

Someone else concluded: "Titanfall 3 died and people lost their jobs so that an even more dysfunctional and MTX-infested Apex can be birthed by the greed-mother that is EA. Sh*tty a*s industry."

While Respawn has reiterated that work continues on a third Jedi game, the sentiment has turned against Apex Legends amid complaints that it's seemingly lived while Titanfall 3 has died on the vine. Oh well, maybe in another life we'll actually get Titanfall 3 and a proper live-action adaptation.