Titanfall 2 sales expected to be beyond 'disappointing'

Titanfall 2 is now out and inside gamers' consoles and PCs, but according to research firm Cowen & Company, sales of EA's latest and greatest mech first-person shooter are... underwhelming, to say the least.

The research firm said that Titanfall 2 sales are going to be "substantially disappointing" in their report, ahead of EA's upcoming earnings briefing. The sales of Titanfall 2 are expected to fall somewhere in the 5-6 million range, down from the much higher 9 million forecast.

Cowen & Company's report said: "We think the game got squeezed between Battlefield 1 and [Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare]. We suspect EA believed that by launching two shooters next to Call of Duty it could put a large dent in its biggest competitor, but instead EA appears to have wound up shooting its own foot off".

EA boss Andrew Wilson said earlier this year that Battlefield 1 and Titanfall 2 are made for different shooter fans, providing EA with a large section of the FPS genre under two franchises. Back in May, Wilson said: "[Shooters are] a giant category in our industry, $4.5 billion, there's a very broad and diverse set of players who are looking to fulfill different gameplay motivations. Some people play very quick play, some people play more strategic, some people want both in different context".

EA released Battlefield 1 and Titanfall 2 within the same week, with Battlefield 1 launching on October 21 and Titanfall 2 just days ago on October 28. A larger spread between releases would've been better, as it would've let gamers play and enjoy BF1 before the release of Titanfall 2 - but releasing them on top of each other was never going to work, especially when they're both from EA - and not competing studios.