Titanfall fans are growing ever more desperate in the wake of recent in-game teasers, to the point where they're now digging through the Red Hot Chili Peppers catalog for clues about a potential third entry in the beloved FPS series.
Over the past couple of months, Titanfall 2 got a series of updates addressing long-standing server issues and old level bugs. Developer Respawn more recently developed Apex Legends, a game that's technically also set in the Titanfall universe, and recent patch notes have included Easter egg references to the release dates for the Titanfall games. While there's been no official word of any major announcements for the series coming up, these teasers have been leading fans to do a whole lot of speculation.
Judging by Reddit posts such as this one, titled "AAAAAAHAHAHA THE NEW MODE IS A REFERENCE TO THE 3RD SONG OF A RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS ALBUM I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE," that speculation is starting to get quickly out of hand.
AAAAAAHAHAHA THE NEW MODE IS A REFERENCE TO THE 3RD SONG OF A RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS ALBUM I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE from r/titanfall
See, among Titanfall 2's recent updates have been regular refreshes to the game's featured playlists. The latest mode to rotate in is The Otherside. As that Reddit post notes, Otherside is also the name of a Red Hot Chili Peppers song - in fact, the third song released as a single from the band's seventh studio album, Californication. Yes, "third" as in "Titanfall 3," and we're just a few weeks away from the seventh anniversary of Titanfall 2's original launch.
There are a pretty wide range of comments in that thread, but the tone of the hopefuls is best summed up by this one from Elite-Soul, who says "this is ether god-tier trolling or a confession at this point." There's also Mr_M0rte, who simply says "TITANFALL 3 IS REAL" over and over again. A lot of players have been making unkind references to their own mental health as they speculate about Titanfall 3, and the whole Titanfall subreddit has essentially devolved into memes about increasingly ridiculous speculation over the sequel.
As for The Otherside, well, that mode has been in the game for years, it's just that now it's finally come back in the playlist rotation. And the song Otherside is actually the fourth song on Californication - it was just the third single released from the album, and it's pretty common for albums to only feature three single releases. In other words, if you pick any popular song out of a hat, the odds that it'll be the third single from some album are not bad.
All those other Titanfall 2 updates do, in my mind, suggest that Respawn has at least something in mind for the series, even if it's something as minimal as an anniversary celebration in Apex Legends. But folks, you've got to stop setting yourselves up for disappointment.
Titanfall 2 remains one of the best FPS games of all time, so if Titanfall 3 finally becomes real, it has some big shoes to fill.