Electronic Arts Inc cancelled a game based on the popular Apex Legends and Titanfall franchises, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The game, which hadn’t been publicly announced, was in production at EA developer Respawn Entertainment. On Jan 31, EA, one of the world’s biggest video game publishers, gave a disappointing outlook for revenue in the current quarter. The company said it was cancelling the Apex Legends mobile game as well as a mobile version of Battlefield and shuttered Industrial Toys, the studio behind it. EA also delayed the highly anticipated Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, another title in development at Respawn.

Management informed the unnamed game’s team of about 50 people that EA will try to find positions for them within the company. Anyone who can’t be placed will be given severance packages and laid off, according to the people familiar with the matter, who asked to speak anonymously because they were not authorised to speak to the press. An EA spokesperson declined to comment.

The cancelled project, code-named TFL or Titanfall Legends, was a single-player game set in the universe shared by the Apex Legends and Titanfall games. It was directed by veteran designer Mohammad Alavi until he left the company in early 2022. Although the game hadn’t been advertised, EA had hinted at it several times.

Fans have been clamouring for a new single-player entry in the critically acclaimed Titanfall series for several years. The most recent entry, Titanfall 2, came out in 2016 to rave reviews. A planned third game morphed into Apex Legends, a battle royale multiplayer title set in the same universe that has become one of EA’s most successful games, earning more than US$2bil .

Respawn, one of EA’s most prolific video game developers, continues to update Apex Legends and is also working on multiple Star Wars games in addition to Jedi: Survivor.

 - Bloomberg