Electronic Arts revealed a workforce reduction program last week—reportedly impacting around 670 employees—alongside announcements regarding a number of major development project cancellations and reassignments. Laura Miele, President of EA Entertainment and Technology, disclosed that Respawn Entertainment's mysterious "Star Wars FPS Action game" had been axed, with staffers moving onto "new projects based on our owned brands" instead of licensed material. Industry insider reports suggested that an internal Respawn team—not assigned to a "Star Wars: Jedi" sequel—had started work on a Mandalorian/bounty hunter-themed first-person shooter IP. The official announcement of a renewed focus on Respawn's "rich library of owned brands" has generated plenty of internet speculation—Titanfall franchise fans have long demanded a proper third entry in the series. Studio boss, Vince Zampella, has teased revisits in the past—an Axios interview revealed that veteran Titanfall game director, Steve Fukuda, was incubating "something new" with a very small skunkworks-type team.

Earlier this week, Giant Bomb's Jeff Grubb addressed rumored goings-on at Respawn. His "Game Mess Mornings 03/04/24" videocast—co-hosted by Emma Fyffe—included a segment dedicated to EA's adjusted development strategies. Grubb reiterated insider information about "Titanfall Legends" getting canned early on last year—allegedly a single-player Apex/Titanfall crossover experience. Giant Bomb's News Editor has reached out to his network of moles—he shared this inside info during Monday's broadcast: "They're not making Titanfall 3. They just straight up aren't. They do have another team that has been kicking around a project that is very early. There's been a very small team in the prototyping phase and now they're going to go to wider. This is a real project now, but still in the prototyping phase. This game, as it stands today, as far as I understand, is a Titanfall game. It's in the Titanfall universe. But everyone I talk to keeps saying, don't get in your mind that it's Titanfall 3, a game with online multiplayer and a single player campaign."

This announcement was shared with EA Entertainment employees by Laura Miele, President of EA Entertainment and Technology: "Hi Everyone, over the past six months, you've heard me talk about aligning our portfolio and organization to deliver on our ambitious growth strategy. One of the essential parts of delivering on our plans is making sure we are listening to our players and investing in the games they want to play. As Andrew noted in his EA Action, the reality of a creative business is that market conditions and players' needs are always changing. We're seeing a rapid player shift toward large open-world games, massive communities, and live services. With that in mind, we have shared the following updates with our teams:"

Respawn:
Respawn's unique ability to connect with players and create exceptional game experiences is unrivaled in entertainment. As we've looked at Respawn's portfolio over the last few months, what's clear is the games our players are most excited about are Jedi and Respawn's rich library of owned brands. Knowing this, we have decided to pivot away from early development on a Star Wars FPS Action game to focus our efforts on new projects based on our owned brands while providing support for existing games. It's always hard to walk away from a project, and this decision is not a reflection of the team's talent, tenacity, or passion they have for the game. Giving fans the next installments of the iconic franchises they want is the definition of blockbuster storytelling and the right place to focus.

Job listings posted by Respawn Entertainment last summer indicated that their Star Wars Jedi: Survivor development team had moved onto an unsurprising project—the ideal candidate(s) would help: "create an incredible Star Wars experience for our players in a fun, third-person action-adventure setting." Games industry watchers believe that a third Star Wars Jedi title is in the works, given that the franchise has—so far—generated a large paying audience. Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson reckons that another Star Wars IP has been bestowed upon Electronic Art's action specialist studio—the report posits that this rumored project is in an early stage of development. Veteran developers at Respawn Entertainment have a long history of producing blockbuster first-person shooter titles, although Apex Legends signaled a slight change in course. Their deviation into third-person with 2019's Jedi: Fallen Order also surprised a segment of longtime Respawn fans.

It is possible that the Electronic Arts and Lucasfilm Games partnership has incubated a new first-person title semi-connected to a popular Star Wars television series IP—Henderson has gathered a few tidbits: "according to sources, the game will see the player take control of a Mandalorian bounty hunter (unclear who) set during the time when the Galactic Empire is dominating across the galaxy. It's your job, as a bounty hunter to capture bounties dead or alive for cash rewards." Rumor mill wires were crossed when it was claimed that a former Apex Legend director was heading up development on the unannounced "Mandalorian" project, but an Insider Gaming update reveals that the former Respawn member was involved in development of a cancelled Apex title.

Electronic Arts and Respawn Entertainment have today issued Patch No. 7 for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, arriving roughly two and a half months after the last batch of fixes and improvements. The most significant update for PC gamers running NVIDIA GPUs is the addition of official DLSS support, likely coinciding with the end an agreement between EA and AMD to advertise Star Wars Jedi: Survivor as a Team Red sponsored title—their FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.1 system was the only upscaling technology available on day one. Community modders managed to implement unofficial DLSS support a few months later.

It is encouraging to see the game's developer and publisher rolling out a semi-regular release of patches—parts of the gaming community were worried about Respawn Entertainment's recruitment cycle pointing to work starting on a potential sequel two months ago—with priorities shifting to the new project. It seems that a number of team members (software engineering and QA) are still working on refinements for Jedi: Survivor—hopefully we will see further work undertaken following today's release of performance and optimization improvements on PC, as well for Xbox Series and PlayStation 5 consoles.

Respawn Entertainment is actively recruiting for a new game project—the Los Angeles studio is looking to fill a "Principal Game Writer" position—the job description (posted on LinkedIn) hints that a sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is already in development: "We're looking for a highly skilled Principal Game Writer who will embrace our philosophy and share their hard-earned expertise to help us create an incredible Star Wars experience for our players in a fun, third-person action-adventure setting. We're picturing an avid gamer who is passionate about storytelling through interactive narratives. Under the direction of the Lead Writer, the Principal Game Writer will be responsible for writing dialogue, scenes, story treatments, and supporting text for the game."

A portion of the Star Wars Jedi fan base, particularly players on PC, will be questioning Respawn and EA's apparent swift decision to shift their priorities to the making of a sequel to Survivor. The second entry in the series released on multiple platforms back in late April, following a delay to address technical issues—the extra time allowance did not result in a perfect launch. The game debuted with major problems across PC and current generation consoles—with apologies and fixes appearing soon after. Respawn's latest patch—number six—was made available on June 20. We can assume that several departments (Art, Design, Production etc.) are not required to provide ongoing support for the current game since there are no announced plans for DLC, but fans would appreciate a continued stream of improvements issued by QA and software engineering staffers.

Electronic Arts and Respawn Entertainment has released the latest patch version 6 for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor that fixes some issues across all platforms, and it should be already available for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. Unfortunately, there is no word on DLSS support or any visual improvements with Ray Tracing effects, so hopefully, we'll see these in future updates.

According to the release notes, the new Patch 6 should fix various crashes across all platforms, fix some general game issues like collision improvements, blaster handling, and holomap map data, various mission issues, and brings other "various bug fixes and improvements."

Electronic Arts and Respawn Entertainment have released its latest Star Wars Jedi Survivor Patch 5, this is a major one as it is 3.2 GB in size, and brings quite a few performance improvements and fixes. Unfortunately, EA is still working on fixing the issues that should improve the performance on newer Core i7 and Core i9 CPUs with efficiency cores, hopefully these will come with a future update.

According to the full release notes, Patch 5 also improves content caching to reduce hitching, improves thread handling when ray tracing is turned off, and brings a fix where lowering the PC visual settings incorrectly lowers the resolution scale if the FSR is disabled. The release notes also list various performance fixes and stability improvements, as well as a couple of gameplay fixes.

Respawn Entertainment, the Star Wars division at Electronic Arts and Lucasfilm Games have today released their first patch for the PC version of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor - some folks must have been working like mad over the weekend in order to address some of the problems encountered shortly after the game's launch last Friday (April 28). The EA Star Wars Twitter account issued a statement regarding the initial batch of patches for all platforms affected: "Today a patch has become available for the PC version of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and tomorrow (5/2) we'll also be issuing a patch for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. We are hard at work on patches that will further improve performance and fix bugs across all platforms. There are more updates to come across all platforms, and we will share that timing when it is available."

The patch notes for today's PC update only mention "performance improvements for non-raytraced rendering" so it seems the developers have a lot more work to do over the coming weeks. The situation on current generation PlayStation and Xbox consoles looks to largely the same, and tomorrow's fix list is extensive (the same problems have already been addressed on PC with today's patch). TPU's own resident reviewer extraordinaire went in-depth and explored Star Wars Jedi: Survivor's technical issues this weekend - part of W1zzard's conclusion was very unkind: "We're now paying $70 to beta-test an unpolished turd that they call an AAA game—not the first time this year. I'm starting to wonder if these companies aren't slowly eroding their customer base by delivering broken products over and over again."

Respawn Entertainment boss Vince Zampella has been engaged in press duties for the Star Wars Jedi: Survivor marketing cycle this week, and is likely having to field questions about the sci-fi action adventure's poor technical performance on PC and consoles alike. In an interview conducted by Barron's Magazine a few days ago, Zampella was probably relieved to have the focus shift to a happier topic - the Titanfall franchise. He seemed to be quite open to the prospect of making a third game: "I hate to say yes, then people latch onto that, and then skewer you when it doesn't come. But I would love to see it happen is the real answer." His studio was founded in order to develop the (multiplayer only) first-person shooter Titanfall (2014), a platform exclusive on PC/Origin and Xbox One. Prior to starting Respawn Entertainment in 2010, Zampella and colleague Jason West were lead designers on the mainline Call of Duty series at Infinity Ward/Activision.

A sequel to the original Titanfall arrived in late 2016 to rave reviews from the press and hardcore fans of the series - the inclusion of a single player campaign was considered to be a highlight - this story campaign borrowed gameplay ideas (to the surprise of many) from Valve's Half Life series, and added time traveling elements to an already mind-bending mobility system. In an unfortunate move for Zampella and Respawn, publisher Electronic Arts decided to launch Titanfall 2 during a very busy release window - the main competition at the time being Activision's Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and (EA's own) Battlefield 1. A mainstream crowd proceeded to ignore the Titanfall sequel thanks to poor marketing on EA's part and a crowded games market - sales figures were underwhelming, even with a PS4 version, and the game was heavily discounted within a couple of months of release. Respawn moved on to create a spin-off multiplayer shooter - the smash hit free-to-play battle royale Apex Legends, and the Star Wars Jedi series.

As we're heading into the last week of April, we have a much anticipated AAA title launching, which involves light sabres and thus shouldn't be too hard to guess. Other games this week include forest rangers, lights and shadows, dead things that are evil and much more. Something for almost everyone in other words, we hope.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor / This week's AAA title / Friday 28 April
The story of Cal Kestis continues in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, a third person galaxy-spanning action-adventure game from Respawn Entertainment, developed in collaboration with Lucasfilm Games. This narratively-driven, single player title picks up five years after the events of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and follows Cal's increasingly desperate fight as the galaxy descends further into darkness.

Electronic Arts has updated the listings for PC system requirements for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and the gaming community has reacted to the refresh of the game's minimum installation storage requisite. It calls for a whopping 155 GB of disk space, for the base game alone, not including the expected routine of patches and extra story content (via DLC). The publisher suggests that an SSD is best used for an optimal in-game experience. The slightly older PC requirements specified a minimum of 150 GB for HDDs, and 130 GB for SSDs.

As it stands, the Respawn Entertainment developed action adventure game has one of the larger minimum storage requirements among modern titles - all the more surprising given that it will offer a relatively short and linear single player experience. Current installations of the PC version of Red Dead Redemption 2 will occupy 150 GB of disk space. Jedi: Fallen Order (2019), Survivor's preceding title in the series, demands a comparatively modest install base of 55 GB. It will be interesting to observe whether Jedi: Survivor will drive sales of larger storage solutions - in the recent past, gamers have scrambled to acquire higher capacity SSDs and HDDs in order to accommodate the ever-growing installations and content drops required to play the Call of Duty/Modern Warfare series.

Electronic Arts has released the official story trailer for its upcoming Star Wars Jedi: Survivor game, that is scheduled to launch on April 28th. The new trailer not only shows the story behind the new Star Wars game but also has some in-game parts.

Developed by Respawn Entertainment in cooperation with Lucasfilm Games, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is a third-person, action-adventure game, set five years after the events of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and puts the player again in the role of Cal Kestis, who has now grown into a powerful Jedi Knight.

We're incredibly excited to announce that the Apex Legends team at Respawn will continue to strengthen its development team with the introduction of a brand new studio location in Madison, Wisconsin led by industry veteran Ryan Burnett. Ryan is an extraordinary leader with a proven track record in live service games and as a pillar in the massive mid-western game development community in Madison. With nearly two decades of development experience at places like Raven Software and Epic Games, Ryan has a history of inspiring the sort of creativity and innovation in his teams that is the foundation of games like Apex Legends.

It's been our belief since day one that Respawn is not a singular location but a mindset: when passionate and talented people have creative freedom, they'll achieve the unexpected. This view helped us successfully expand to Vancouver in 2019, and as the workplace evolved, it helped us continue to work with the best that the games industry has to offer, whether at the office, remote, or hybrid.

The galaxy is more dangerous than ever as the next chapter in Cal Kestis' journey begins. Today at The Game Awards, Respawn Entertainment, Electronic Arts, and Lucasfilm Games revealed that Star Wars Jedi: Survivor will launch on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC on March 17, 2023. During the annual awards show, a first look at gameplay was premiered in a new Official Reveal trailer showcasing Cal Kestis (Cameron Monaghan) as a stronger and more experienced Jedi Knight while setting up the threats that await him. The veteran team at Respawn Entertainment is developing Star Wars Jedi: Survivor for the latest generation of gaming hardware to deliver action-packed Jedi combat with the deepest exploration and cinematic gameplay in the series.

"Star Wars Jedi: Survivor evolves the gameplay, story, and exploration from Fallen Order in every way," said Stig Asmussen, game director, Respawn. "Responsive and powerful combat makes players feel like a true Jedi Knight, with new lightsaber skills and Force abilities that add additional layers of strategy to each enemy encounter, and worlds that are filled with environmental challenges that must be overcome to unveil the mysteries within."

Today at Star Wars Celebration, Respawn Entertainment, Electronic Arts, and Lucasfilm Games unveiled Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, the next chapter of the beloved Star Wars action-adventure series chronicling the journey of Jedi Cal Kestis. Developed by the veteran team at Respawn under the leadership of game director Stig Asmussen, Star WarsJedi: Survivor will expand upon the iconic Star Wars stories, worlds, characters, and thrilling combat first experienced in the series' debut title, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is being built for the current generation of gaming hardware to create a deeper and more expansive Star Wars experience for players worldwide when the game launches in 2023.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor picks up five years after the events of Jedi: Fallen Order. Cal must stay one step ahead of the Empire's constant pursuit as he begins to feel the weight of being one of the last remaining Jedi in the galaxy. Accompanied by his trusty companion BD-1, Cal will meet and ally himself with an array of unique and interesting characters on his journey. Jedi: Survivor will expand on the series' dynamic combat in new and innovative ways. In order to survive, Cal must learn new skills and grow his connection with the Force.

Electronic Arts Inc. and Lucasfilm Games are joining forces to continue delivering all-new, world-class gaming experiences set within the beloved Star Wars galaxy. Respawn Entertainment, best known for their work on Apex Legends, Titanfall and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, is leading the development and production of these new projects. Vince Zampella, Group GM and Founder of Respawn, will oversee this new phase of EA's relationship with Lucasfilm, building on Respawn's award-winning history in game development and expertise in telling compelling Star Wars stories.

Game Director Stig Asmussen and his team at the studio are already working on the next game in the action adventure Star Wars Jedi series, and are joined by two new teams working to deliver additional unique Star Wars gameplay experiences across multiple genres. Leading the development of Respawn's all-new Star Wars first-person shooter game is Peter Hirschmann, Game Director at Respawn, who has a long and accomplished history with the Star Wars franchise. The third title is a Star Wars strategy game developed through a production collaboration with the newly formed studio Bit Reactor, helmed by games industry veteran Greg Foerstch. Respawn will produce the new Star Wars strategy game while Bit Reactor leads on the development of the title.

Western Digital has teamed up with Respawn Entertainment to create an Apex Legends -themed memory card for the Nintendo Switch, offering gamers and contenders across the Outlands expanded storage solutions just in time for the universally acclaimed battle royale game to drop into the Nintendo eShop next month.

Featuring the distinctive Apex Legends insignia, players can squad up and battle for glory with the microSDXC card which offers up to 128 GB of expanded storage. Whether it's existing fans who want to ready themselves to jump into the action, or new players looking to compete in the Apex Games for the first time, this microSDXC card ensures any gamer is equipped with the additional space they need to take on more adventures or challenges on their Nintendo Switch system.

Respawn Entertainment, a studio of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:EA), and Oculus from Facebook today announced during Facebook Connect that the highly-anticipated upcoming Virtual Reality (VR) title, Medal of Honor : Above and Beyond will release on December 11, 2020, worldwide. This new innovative and immersive title blends films and games into one, and will be available on the Oculus Store for Oculus Rift and Steam with OpenVR support and cross-platform play.

"The Medal of Honor franchise has always been a powerful series that tells the untold stories of war heroes, and from the beginning of this series in 1999, our goal has been to create grounded and emotionally authentic games that are true to the experiences of people that fought and lived through it," said Peter Hirschmann, Director, Respawn Entertainment. "We're honored to share these moving first-hand stories from survivors and veterans of WWII and deliver an immersive VR gameplay experience that provides high-flying action and emotional, intimate storytelling in equal measure."

There has always been something to be said about single-player experiences - most players just seem to prefer a strong single-player game to full-on multiplayer games. EA, LucasArts and Respawn Entertainment have now come out of the woodwork regarding the latest Star Wars release in the form of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen order, and it seems the game is shipping in no small amounts worldwide. The partners announced that this game has cemented itself as the fastest-selling digital launch for a Star Wars game in its first two weeks. And concurrently, EA has said this is the fastest selling PC-game for the company (in all distribution formats) in these same two weeks.

Of course, one needs to remember that fastest, highest-selling doesn't automatically make the game the most grossing Star Wars release. It's likely that Star Wars games with a more multiplayer-focused DNA (such as Battlefront I and Battlefront II from DICE) will gross more in their lifetime than Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order ever will. That said, it goes to show what an original storytelling experience set in a beloved franchise can achieve. Read on after the break for the comments from all developing parties.

The upcoming single-player Star Wars Jedi: Fallen order will be a tall calling for Respawn. Few franchises are as loved as Star Wars, and this one will definitely leave a mark in the company's legacy. It's unlikely EA will "pull an EA" on the studio even if it flops, though: Apex Legends remains an incredibly successful release form Respawn Entertainment, and it should be enough to hold EA's reins - at least for a while.

The system requirements for the highly-awaited, story-driven single-player game have been outed, and they're in the usual side of things. Minimum requirements call for an AMD FX-6100 or an Intel Core i3-3220, paired with 8 GB of RAM and an AMD Radeon HD 7750 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 - alongside 65 GB of storage. The recommended specs are relatively standard as well, and nothing to throw users in an upgrade fit... We're looking at an AMD AMD Ryzen 7 1700 or an Intel i7-6700K, 16 GB of system RAM, An AMD RX Vega 56 or NVIDIA GTX 1070 graphics cards. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order drops on November 15th.

Apex Legends was somewhat of a sleeper hit, and it was so in many ways. A ninja introduction by EA of the Respawn Entertainment-developed game back in January saw significant interest from the gaming community, who recognized in Respawn the ability to make a great FPS. Taking advantage of the Battle Royale popularity was also a solid move, as was EA's decision to focus marketing efforts not on a long, drawn-out publicity campaign, but instead, on paying renowned Twitch streamers to play and stream their game.

Since gaming (at least when it comes to multiplayer gaming) nowadays has somewhat of a "monkey see, monkey do" dynamic for the general gaming population, this move prompted Apex Legends to the top of the streaming food chain, with a grand total of 40 million hours streamed on its first week alone. Also during its first week, the game achieved a staggering 25 million unique players, doubling that number to 50 million in the first month. However, the cash flow must die out, and as EA stopped paying streamers, so did they move on to other, more proficuous games, such as Fortnite, which has endured the Apex Legends assault in terms of viewers and players. It remains to be seen if EA will double down on the streamer investment it did on the games' launch, or if Respawn Entertainment can churn out meaningful updates and characters that can turn the tide.

We knew it was coming, and were patiently waiting for more news on a new IP from Electronic Arts based on the Star Wars license they have.. not made the best use of to date. Handed to developers Respawn Entertainment, who are on a high from Apex Legends and have shown how to create a new IP franchise for single- and mult-player gaming with Titanfall, the new single-player focused game is titled Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Respawn and EA shared more details on the game yesterday as part of the Star Wars celebration event in Chicago, and let us know that the central character is a Jedi padawan, Cal Kestis, who survived Order 66 and the destruction of most of the Jedi order.

Cal Kestis turns to scavenging on the planet Braka while hiding from the Sith empire, in a move that will no doubt draw comparisons to Disney's new numbered film trilogy. With merchandise no doubt a factor, we will also see a new droid companion called BD-1, as seen in the images below. Given the nature of the protagonist being a padawan trainee, there will also be a Jedi knight who will accompany the player as a mentor. Combat will involve strategy, as per Respawn, with the player needing to employ abilities and spatial movement to make the most of the situation. Enemy units will include the Purge Troopers, a melee-focused variant of the Storm Troopers, who have already appeared in the Star Wars Extended Universe before as specialized units dedicated to hunting down survivors of Order 66. EA and Respawn were both quick to reveal this will be a single-player only game with no microtransactions, and the game releases on PC and consoles on November 15, 2019. While we wait for more details, no doubt coming near E3 or closer to debut, here's a reveal trailer to hold you till then.

Respawn Entertainment and EA are both celebrating the first month of Apex Legend's release with a short video, commemorating the fact that some 50 million unique players have already logged in and played the game in some form. Apex Legends, which launched after an uber secretive development over at Titanfall developer Respawn Entertainment, was released just last month, managing to become a sleeper hit for EA as it surpassed 10 million unique players and 1 million concurrent players in just three days after release, more than doubling those numbers in the second week of its release. The game is, for all intents and purposes, a hit among gamers, and is sure to be bringing a steady revenue stream to EA's bottom line.

If you've been clamoring, silently or not so silently, for a new story-driven Star Wars game, you're in luck. The Respawn-developed Star Wars game Jedi: Fallen Order is set for a reveal on April 13th. That doesn't mean the game is launching anywhere close to that slice of time, mind you; it's likely EA is just starting up the hype machine for the game, as it usually does. A fall release is expected, nonetheless, which means that Respawn was working in two very disparate game experiences a the same time - this really should speak to that studios' ingenuity.

Respawn has wrapped up their silent, ninja-like development of Apex Legends to a full game release, and is on cruise mode when it comes to the games' support. Provided they keep adding features - and raking in the money from all that hard work in what has quickly become one of the video game hits of recent times - the company's efforts can now certainly be focused solely on the Star Wars story-driven game. The announcement came straight from EA's Star Wars Twitter account, and the reveal is set for the Star Wars Celebration in Chicago. Some tidbits about the games' setting are delivered, such as that you're a "Padawan who survives Order 66" and you explore "the universe in a time after the fall of the Jedi Order". Whether "exploring the universe" is overly enthusiastic jargon for an on-rails experience or code for a somewhat emergent/open world game system remains to be seen, but it's Star Wars. The budget is big, and Respawn has developed great games.

"Apex Legends," developed by Respawn Entertainment, and published by EA, has become the fastest growing online battle-royale shooter, with its popularity snowballing to over 25 million players in just the first week since launch. The game made a splash into the crowded online battle-royale genre that's dominated by "Fortnite" and "Player Unknown's Battlegrounds" aka PUBG, among dozens of knockoffs from independent developers. Apex Legends is being appreciated by players for having a polished, well-tested presentation, slick gameplay, reasonable eye-candy, low "pay-to-win" perception among players, good performance on entry-level and mainstream graphics hardware, and offering many of the inventory-management, gameplay, and teamplaying features felt lacking in other titles. The game is free-to-play, distributed through Origin.