There was Nearly a Vita Version of Titanfall

Geoff Keighley's just released the latest in his series of "The Final Hours of..." apps, this time focusing on Titanfall. And, much like previous installments, it's brought some interesting and eye-opening details to light.

Perhaps the most interesting thing that came out of Keighley's discussions with Titanfall's developers Respawn was the news that Sony was pushing hard for a Vita version of the mechanized shooter -- so hard, in fact, that it offered to help out on the development and porting side of things.

This mockup from our pals at Eurogamer gives a peek into what life on another worldline -- a worldline with a Vita version of Titanfall -- might look like. Here, however, it is not to be.

Why Vita and not PlayStation 4? Well, Respawn reportedly reached out to Sony about the possibility of a PlayStation 4 version of the shooter, but at the time the company was unwilling to discuss the specifications and capabilities of the then-unreleased machine. As such, a PlayStation 4 version never materialized -- and, even with the offered support of Sony, neither did a Vita version. This is unfortunate, since the Vita has proven itself more than capable of providing a convincing first-person shooter experience in the form of the impressive Killzone: Mercenary, and a big-hitter like Titanfall being released on the platform would perhaps go some distance towards silencing the few remaining people who still complain about Vita not having any games.

Other interesting tidbits from the app include the changes the game underwent during development -- originally, everyone started in a Titan and you then got to play as a Pilot as an "extra life" after your machine was destroyed -- and some details on the bitter feud between Activision and Respawn's co-founders Vince Zampella and Jason West that subsequently led to some bad blood between the pair and, eventually, West's departure.

Check out the app here; it'll set you back $1.99, and is available for PC, Mac, iPad or Surface. Not an altogether bad price for 25,000 words of interesting reading.

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Comments 1

#1 touchofkiel 4 years ago

As much as I love the RPGs and indie games on my Vita - and as little as I'm interested in Titanfall - this would have been pretty huge. The Vita needs a massive Western game or two. A spinoff of a second rate FPS series like Killzone - however good it might be - just doesn't cut it.