Titanfall matches will have up to 48 combatants at once

Matches of Titanfall will contain up to 48 combatants at any one time, Respawn Entertainment has confirmed.

The developer shocked some players earlier this week when it announced that only 12 human players would feature in each match of the hotly anticipated shooter, or six on each side.

If you're worried about having things to shoot, well, Respawn Entertainment doesn't think that will be a problem. Each human player can be accompanied by their robotic Titan, Respawn Entertainment explained to Polygon, and there can be an additional 12 AI characters padding out the ranks on each team.

Lead designer Justin Hendry explained that having six human players on each side was, ultimately, a result of fine-tuning the game during testing. "The higher the player count, the more uncomfortable the game gets," he said.

"Unlike in most games where you can sit there and guard the two ways in, in Titanfall the guy can come in through the window right behind you, he can come from the window to your left, he can come from straight ahead, he can come in from the stairway and he can come in from the doorway, or whatever. Essentially there are five directions you can get killed from and the higher that player count, the more likely you are to get killed from behind and the more difficult it is to kind of manage your surroundings."

Titanfall started with 12 players on each side at the beginning of its development, but the number was slowly whittled down as the developers tried to create the right balance and feel. At one point, the number was even fewer than six-a-side, but Respawn eventually came to believe that having 12 human players was the "number that felt best" for the game it was trying to make.

"When people start playing Titanfall like Titanfall, the player count becomes a non-issue," Hendry added.

Titanfall will be released for the Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PC on March 11.