With Titanfall 2, Respawn makes a show of ditching paid map packs

Respawn Entertainment's mech-enhanced shooter Titanfall 2 is out this week, and as part of the hype campaign the studio has published a blog post lionizing its decision to make any multiplayer maps or game modes it adds to the game post-release completely free.

This is something the studio has been talking up for a while, emphasizing that it does not want to risk splitting up the game's playerbase based on map access. Devs will note that's a bit of a departure from the now-standard business model of many big-budget shooters that emphasize multiplayer play. 

Gears of War 4 and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, for example, both ship this year with an option to purchase a "Season Pass" that grants access to post-launch map packs. 

While Respawn makes a point of pitching this as a canny business move that helps Titanfall 2 stand apart from its competition, it's worth remembering that this helps set it apart from its predecessor as well.

The original Titanfall shipped in 2014 with an optional $25 "Season Pass" component that encompassed 3 post-release map packs, and by 2015 Respawn wound up making those maps freely available to all Titanfall players in an effort to get more people playing the game online.