Titanfall 2 Writer Dishes Out Story Details, Expects PS4 Release

Though it's not official, most assume Titanfall 2 is going multiplatform, so that's why you're seeing this news on a PlayStation-centric site.

As most of you know, the original title was exclusive to Xbox. Now, however, we've got more evidence that the new effort will indeed be multiplatform, and that it will include a single-player campaign.

Lead writer Jesse Stern recently sat down with Forbes and talked about a variety of topics, including the fact that the IP will get a TV spinoff show.

Stern first confirms that developer Respawn Entertainment started work on Titanfall 2 in late 2014. However, he isn't sure if the game will make it to store shelves or if EA will launch it in early 2017. For the record, the publisher did confirm the sequel for its fiscal 2017 year, which runs between April 1, 2016 and March 31, 2017. Stern then added that the multiplayer will be "even better" and he believes we'll see a multiplatform release. Well, duh, even M$ can't pay EA enough for them to forfeit all those potential PS4 sales; there are nearly 36 million of those consoles out there now . And many more by the time Titanfall 2 comes out.

As for the story mode, Stern said:

"One of the shortcomings of the first game was we just did not have the mechanism to tell everyone 'Here's who you are, here's where you are and who's around you.' We knew all the answers, we just could not deliver it."

So, the story in the sequel will revolve around "grand colonial warfare," which will mirror the American Revolution and Civil War:

"We imagined the next generation of immigrants moving out to the new frontier of an inhabitable planet. Rather than taking a traditional sci-fi approach to that we wanted to look at how that would happen practically, what the ships would look like and with machines that were designed for excavation and construction , demolition and working the land, and what happens when they are turned into instruments of war. What inspires us is the junction of technological advancement with the inevitability of conflict and war and what the next war might look like. In Titanfall 2 there will be a lot of [scenes] where science meets magic, but keeping it grounded and dirty and human and real."

Yeah, well, the only way I'm buying it is if this story is decent. If the campaign is great, count me in. Previously, we had heard Respawn tease the possibility of a single-player campaign , so here's hoping they don't make the same mistake twice.