Why Titanfall 2 Is Back in the News, and Why Fans Think Respawn Is Plotting Something

ign.com:

Titanfall 2 is enjoying something of a mini-resurgence on PC after its community spotted what it believes was an update that addressed long-standing matchmaking issues.

Earlier this month, the Titanfall community said Respawn’s much-loved 2016 first-person shooter had received an update that reduced disconnects players experienced while searching for a match.

Titanfall 2 has been riddled with issues for years, and its history is littered with hacks, conspiracies, and hoaxes.

While Respawn or publisher EA has yet to announce an update to Titanfall 2, the game is enjoying a healthy number of players on Steam. Yesterday, September 17, Titanfall 2 hit a peak of 23,234 concurrent players. It is comfortably in Steam’s top 100 most-popular games.

However, Titanfall 2’s current surge may have as much to do with deals, including Steam’s 90% off sale, which ends today, September 18.

Meanwhile, Titanfall fans are wondering whether Respawn has a surprise or two up its sleeve. A Titanfall Easter egg was spotted buried within Apex Legends patch notes published last week. This Easter egg, which revolves around the Nessie mascot that originated in Titanfall, includes three numerical codes:

Incoming Transmission…. Subject: Nessie….

1394521200

1477638000

1549267200

It didn't take long for fans to work out what the codes meant. They are Unix timestamps that correspond to the release dates of Titanfall, Titanfall 2, and Apex Legends respectively.

Fans dare not even whisper Titanfall 3, but there is renewed hope Respawn is plotting something to do with its seemingly dormant franchise. But what?

This summer it emerged Respawn had worked on Titanfall 3 "in earnest" for 10 months before ditching it for Apex Legends. Mohammad Alavi, who became narrative