Well landing that logic only follows if they truly believe Titanfall wouldn't sell. If I was eating and I was hiring the creator of the biggest franchise of the gen to make a new game using ideas from a call of duty game already in production, I would presume that it would be a property I'd want to have. But you have a point...and that point is that we cannot ever truly know. I like the narrative and logic of my theory better but I can't say im being 100% objective in that choice.

Save me the trouble?

So you're saying Respawn flat out lied to us when they said they didn't know EA sold console exclusivity of Titanfall to MS?

Either way, I don't think Activision is ruing anything. Titanfall was a game that was overhyped and under delivered at every corner. I also think people overhyped Respawn as well. There is no doubt these guys can make an amazing game since they made COD4 and later on MW2. But we also have to remember that these guys made MW2, one of the worst FPS in terms of balance. While initially MW2 seemed like a fine experience, but by the end of its life cycle everyone got fed up of all the BS that was in the game and the now prevalent COD hate started. I still love MW2 as my first COD game, but I simply can not deny that it was the COD infested with the most BS to date. As such, these guys have yet to prove themselves with another game that can live up to and raise the standards they set with COD4. So far imo they haven't done so.

Given what the court documents have alleged of West and Zampella, this is all too plausible.

Without knowing exactly what contract Respawn signed who really knows what are within the clauses.  I hate to say this but you are making wild guess to something that is very complex without having enough information.  Most deals probably are not boiler plate and I am sure the one signed by Respawn had all kinds of protection clauses.  It’s a safe bet that Respawn CEO would not put themselves into another contract where they are indentured slaves since they already have enough experience within that area.  During contract negotiations  anything could have been agreed on even having a 3rd party assist with funding.  

One question I would like to talk about is this over hype part gamers keep talking about.  The game was advertised, how was that hype.  People played demos of the game and enjoyed it, how can that be considered hyped.  So what is the difference between hype and advertisement.  Is it just the person opinion that is the hype part not the game itself.

Maybe its just me but when gamers talk about hype it seems to me its their own personal perception of a game then anything else.

If you look at the game pre-release, a lot of gamers as well as the media was dubbing Titanfall as the next big FPS, the game that would dethrone COD and in general raise the FPS bar for next gen. That's where all the hype came from.

Heck even from a sales perspective, TF was expected to be the game that would make Xbones fly out of shelves and make it get back on par with PS4.

and with that, i was the other guy on the grassy knoll.

At pre-release those people that played the game enjoyed it and thought the game was very fun but many also wondered if this could be substained for a MP only game.  As for dethrowning COD, I believe there was much less people making that claim but maybe it was me.

@Bolded:  As for sales perspective who actually made such claims that Titanfall would make the X1 fly off the shelves.  If you are talking about fanboys when has anyone every taken someone who is totally invested in a company as hype or even something to base sales against.  Titanfall always was going to be a decent exclusive.  The problem with Titanfall is that it was MP only game which cut short its appeal big time and reduce the amount of people who would purchase a 500 dollar system just to play that game.  Maybe if Respawn had a incredible singleplayer to go along with the MP then things would have forcast different.

I think the expectation was that SP never really mattered for these types of MP focused FPS games. So it was a moot point, at least at the time. Of course that turned out to be wrong and the game's ability to sustain interest became a major issue without any SP or Co-op to go alongside MP. That being said, probably the bigger problem with TF was not even the lack of SP or co-op, but rather the lack of options in MP itself. Given that the game is MP only, the MP content is awfully lacking as most people who have played the game tend to agree.

It may be the result of the game being pushed out earlier than it was meant to be, or whatever other reason people are thinking up now that things have calmed down a bit.