Typically, when a game that was exclusive to another store makes its way to Steam, it's a welcome development. In the case of "Titanfall," however, it was almost the opposite: despite receiving a high 86% review rating in 2014 and being described as "the most exciting multiplayer shooter in recent years," user reviews on Steam have been "mixed" and in the past 30 days were "very negative."

The problem is the lack of functional servers: the original Titanfall was multiplayer-only, and without servers the game is virtually unplayable. The core problem, as explained in this Reddit mega-thread, is that Titanfall suffers from numerous unpatched vulnerabilities that can be used to crash or overload the servers or disconnect players.

"This is a problem that has existed for years, with crashes dating back to 2019 and cheaters running rampant in the lobby (renamed to make it seem as if they were widespread, driving many players away from the game) even further back," Titanfall community group Redshield, founder of TF Remnant Fleet, told Eurogamer.

The problem existed while the game was an Origin exclusive, much to the chagrin of those who wanted to play, and remains in the Steam version. But perhaps not for much longer.

"We are aware of the ongoing DDOS attack affecting @Titanfallgame," Respawn tweeted. To the Titanfall community: help is on the way ASAP."

Respawn declined to comment further, but the response to the tweet was generally positive. Some players criticized the studio for what they perceived as prioritizing a seven-year-old FPS over Apex Legends, but most were excited at the prospect of returning to the cockpit of Titan without being jerked around.

As for why they took action seven years after Titanfall's release, Red Shield speculates that the recent attacks on Titanfall 2 spurred the studio into action.