Examples of Damage Control in Gaming: For Whom the Twitter Titan Falls

Anyone who enjoys first-person shooters has a good amount of them to choose from this holiday season. There’s the Dice-developed and EA-published Battlefield 1, which takes place in an alternate universe version of World War I (hence its name), and whose setting is welcome for those who’ve tired of modern or futuristic military shooters. But those who like their war shooters with a bit more sci-fi panache may prefer Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare instead, the newest title in the annual best-selling franchise, this time developed by Infinity Ward. Meanwhile, the expatriates from that particular developer at Respawn Entertainment worked on Titanfall 2, also published by EA. Given the reviews currently available, each provides a good experience.

However, if you look at those three games and follow new releases, you’ll know that one of them didn’t receive nearly as much attention: Titanfall 2. Both Battlefield and Call of Duty are juggernaut franchises in the genre and guaranteed multimillion sellers, but the same can’t be said for Titanfall after the first game’s sales. Sure, it sold well on the systems it released for — particularly on Xbox One, where it was nearly treated as an exclusive. But for some reason, EA had the bright idea to sandwich its release between the two bigger titles, and it shouldn’t surprise anyone that it’s being overlooked; well, everyone except EA.

That’s a shame, since those currently playing it claim it’s just as good as the other two titles at least. It ranks even higher than that for those who enjoy some mech action with their shooting. But despite an OK advertising campaign, and how they added a reportedly good single-player campaign this time around, its online player base on each platform shows how most skipped it in favor of the competition. That’s upsetting for those enjoying it, but there’s an unlikelier party that feels the need to express their disappointment: The Titanfall 2 Twitter account.

While the account is unsurprisingly being used for promotional purposes, sometimes with cringeworthy hashtags, it also made some snarky comments and took a clear jab at Infinite Warfare. One tweet talks about how Titanfall 2 is reminiscent of the so-called halcyon days, where purchasing a game got you everything, and how this game has no Season Pass. While that’s great, it’s also ironic considering the other EA games with one, including Battlefield 1’s $49.99 pass — one of the most expensive to date. The second key tweet talks about how one game is “slow & plodding” while another’s “frantic precision is electrifying,” capped off with a #MaketheRightCall hashtag. CoD isn’t mentioned by name, but they weren’t subtle about what they were referencing.

While there’s nothing wrong with taking nice, playful jabs at the competition, these came off as immature and bitter. It was reminiscent of the rivalries some companies had in the 90s, in a bad way. After some took issue with this, Respawn made it clear that they had no control over the account, and congratulated Infinity Ward on a great launch. They should leave the bitterness to the gaming audience on message boards and social networks, who will pick that up in spades.

It’s also ironic that those tweets were from an EA staffer, since this title is competing with another game from the publisher. While they, and possibly Respawn, felt confident in the success of Titanfall 2 with its release date, perhaps they should have pushed it back to a less competitive timeframe early next year. Sales data from Europe last week suggested that it didn’t match the launch sales of the first game, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if this sales pattern was similar in America, which we could discover this month.

But all isn’t lost, especially if EA can continue their advertising blitz into the holiday season. Some may want another game to play during vacation, or know a person who plays video games they may want to gift it to. But those are long shots, as core-aimed titles like this are known for having their sales front-loaded, unless they receive a multitude of exposure like its competition.

Hopefully anyone who enjoys FPS titles finds the time to enjoy every single title here, though that could be tough for anyone who likes to go in depth with their multiplayer modes. But if your choice is Titanfall 2, the hope is that the player base is large enough to sustain the game’s online for at least the next few months.

P.S. EA’s had a fun time regarding Twitter misfires recently, by the way. Their Battlefield 1 Twitter account tweeted a number of in-game images referencing WWI with the hashtag #JustWWIThings. While that’s at least cringeworthy and trying too hard to sound “cool” and “with it,” others found it insensitive given the sheer amount of soldiers who died or experienced hell in WWI. This particularly applied to one that was attached to a GIF of a soldier being burned by a flamethrower. The account responded by deleting the tweets. Maybe EA needs better social media managers.