Following a turbulent month stained with teases and looping speculation, Titanfall fans are beginning to lose hope over a third game’s imminent announcement.
Developer Respawn stoked the speculation fires last month when it quietly fixed Titanfall 2, the beloved but busted mech-shooter. Those fires burned even brighter when the team added a mysterious new "???" playlist to matchmaking and also referenced the series in patch notes for their mega-successful battle royale, Apex Legends. Theories reached a boiling point when fans looked for clues in Red Hot Chili Peppers’ discography - a step too far, some might argue.
Titanfall and Apex Legends share more than a few Easter Eggs, though, they share a universe. But recent references between the two seemingly culminated in a new character announcement for Apex Legends, as the animated trailer below concretely connects the games.
The new ‘Stories from the Outlands’ animated short introduces us to Conduit - a character slated to join the battle royale’s roster during Season 19 - as she recalls how one Titan saved her small village. Years later, she travels to the aforementioned Titan’s remains and seems to have ingested some nuclear energy from touching its core.
Over on the Titanfall subreddit, one downstricken post reads: “There are Titans in the new Apex trailer, and I’m afraid I might be losing hope.” One defeated commenter said, “It’s all led up to this moment.” Another fan remarked, “If they are using Titanfall hype for new Apex content, that would just be salt in the wound.” Others in the thread weren’t convinced to jump into Apex’s newest season, even if it added playable Titans.
The announcement seems to have rattled the community because it potentially marks the end for whatever Titanfall momentum had been built up, but some are also stirred by the lore inaccuracies on display. Redditors were “confused” about how the Titan batteries now seem to grant superpowers. “Found Titanfall’s version of Spider-Man,” one fan joked. Others called out that Titans can’t jump as they do in the trailer, though that could just be a creative liberty taken for the sake of animated coolness. (And it was very cool, in fairness.)
Redditor AppleApplOrange had a more optimistic take: “We might not get Titanfall 3, but Titanfall 2 works now! That’s enough for me.” That’s certainly a respectable viewpoint. Connection issues plagued the beloved shooter for years, and that’s happily been fixed. Titanfall is fun again, the game is back in the best-sellers charts, and all that online chatter only fuels the myth behind a threequel. (Hopefully.)
Respawn has insisted that Titanfall is still a “beloved franchise” for the studio. But EA reportedly canned a single-player shooter set in the Apexfall universe.
