Updated: Titanfall Will Have a 6v6 Player Cap

Respawn co-founder Vince Zampella has confirmed that multiplayer matches will have a “max player count” of 12 players.

As evidenced by Pacific Rim, giant robots are all kinds of awesome. That being the case, when it comes to videogames there are sometimes other things to consider. For instance, it’s recently been revealed that Titanfall, Respawn Entertainment’s hybrid of online shooters and mech combat, will only be able to include 12 players in any given match.

@MrClutch514 @Respawn 6v6 is max player count. Turned out to be the best balance with ai for us.— Vince Zampella (@VinceZampella) January 8, 2014

This information came to light via a Tweet from Respawn co-founder Vince Zampella. Responding to an inquiry from a Twitter follower he stated that “6v6 is max player count. Turned out to be the best balance with AI for us.” Zampella is likely referring, of course, to the computer controlled troops that will populate multiplayer maps in addition to the players themselves.

While cutting back on actual players may make sense in technical terms however, some might still question the wisdom of the move. Just personally, while I don’t mind when multiplayer utilizes bots, shooting other players is much more satisfying in my opinion. The fact that I also tend to gravitate toward larger scale battles with more people makes this news a bit of a downer for me. That said, I’ll withhold judgment until the game actually releases in March. You never know, maybe the aforementioned mechs will make up for the lower player cap.

Update: An apparent Respawn employee has been quoted on on NeoGaf elaborating on the game’s player count. “For [the] amount of stuff happening at once in a map you’ll be hard pressed to find a game that keeps the action higher,” they said. “Remember, you can get out of your Titan and let it roam on AI mode – meaning there can be 12 Pilots wallrunning around, 12 Titans stomping below, and dozens of AI doing their thing.”

The employee also disputed the use of the term “bots” in describing Titanfall‘s AI soldiers. “That’s not how they are. The AI in Titanfall are not replacements for human players. Our playercount is not 6v6 because of AI – AI play their own role in the game and are a different class of character in the game.”

Update: According to Respawn, when you include players, Titans and the game’s AI units, multiplayer matches actually max out at around 48 combatants. Lead designer Justin Hendry has also further insisted that “the higher the player count, the more uncomfortable the game gets,” referring in part to Titanfall‘s focus on mobility and how it affects the way players play.

Source: Twitter