Out of the blue, seven-year-old FPS Titanfall 2 has fully working multiplayer again

Beloved robot friend simulator and first-person shooter Titanfall 2 has had a matchmaking problem for years. Even after its previous server issues were fixed, players would still be disconnected if they had to queue for any length of time. And, given that Titanfall 2 came out in 2016, it's pretty likely you'd be waiting in that lobby a while.

Surprisingly, an official update has appeared out of nowhere and got it working again. Players are now flooding back, with Titanfall 2 hitting a peak player count of 22,604 in the last 24 hours. What's more, the featured playlist rotation has started being updated again, and weapon loadouts in the 1v1 coliseum mode have changed. 

Meanwhile, the patch notes for a recent Apex Legends update include a sly nod to its predecessor Titanfall. The patch notes for the Harbingers event conclude with the words "Incoming Transmission…. Subject: Nessie…." and three numbers: 1394521200, 1477638000, and 1549267200. Those numbers are the Unix timestamps for the release dates of Titanfall, Titanfall 2, and Apex Legends.

Does this mean we should expect a new announcement regarding the wider Titanfall/Apex universe? Since finding out that Respawn canceled Titanfall 3 in favor of going battle royale in Apex Legends, the Titanfall community has largely given up on there ever being another game in the series. That doesn't mean it isn't possible, but the odds of some kind of Titanfall-themed seasonal event crossover in Apex Legends seem more likely. Maybe they'll add wallrunning, or even titans?

Titanfall 2 is also on sale right now, going for 90% off on Steam.