Subj : Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2
To   : All
From : Dumas Walker
Date : Fri Jun 19 2026 08:32:29

Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 director says making the game four-player is a
'challenge' because there's now 'four times the amount of things that you 
need to put on screen'  But it 'works better in a PVE game'

Date:
Fri, 19 Jun 2026 10:08:56 +0000

Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 game director Chris Cross has explained why the team
at Cold Iron Studios decided to make the sequel four-player co-op., but
acknowledged that it came with some obstacles during development.

Speaking in an interview with TechRadar Gaming at Summer Game Fest 2026 ,
Cross said one of the "challenges" of making the jump to four-player was
balancing the "attention economy" and the multitude of assets and effects on
screen at the same time. "There's four times the amount of things that you
need to put on screen," he said, "like more enemies and such, because if
everybody focuses fires on something, it'll melt, [so] managing enough 
targets and distractions for the team is basically a constant challenge for
us."

 Fireteam Elite was two-player, but when asked why the team decided on making
the successor four-player instead of three-player, as you would typically 
find in other online co-op shooters, Cross revealed that it was for two
reasons. One, it was "highly requested" by fans, and two, "four works better
in a PVE game because you can do two and two." 

"You can have even more combinatory-like abilities, mixing and matching, but
also it kind of harkens back to like four-player split screen, right? Like it
feels good to have co-op before."

Cross continued, saying, "The thing for us, though, is if you go three and 
one person splits off, they would end up being a liability. Whereas, [with
four players] you can do two and two now. But another thing, though, is the
three-person sort of convention I kind of felt like came from battle royale
games, like trios [in] Apex Legends , Fortnite , etc. 

"It feels like a good, a good mix for a solitary unit, but I just like four,
[it] just feels better... A four-person rifle team feels good having four
slots with five classes and a possible six. The opportunities that mix and
match are so much greater than just three."

 Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 doesn't have a release date yet, but it will launch
on PlayStation 5 , Xbox Series X and Series S , and PC.

Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/gaming/aliens-fireteam-elite-2-director-says-making-
the-game-four-player-is-a-challenge-because-theres-now-four-times-the-amount-o
f-things-that-you-need-to-put-on-screen-but-it-works-better-in-a-pve-game

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