Over the weekend I had the good fortune to have a VIP access of sorts to Respawn Entertainment’s Titanfall panel at the Boston Penny Arcade Expo. I was standing just feet away from acclaimed video game journalist Geoff Keighley whom you may have seen on such websites as Gametrailers.com. The photo to the left is from my cellular device during my own rush of excitement.

Sitting front and center for the panel, I watched as the staff unveiled their vision for the upcoming months (and possibly further) for their game which is currently running on Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PC.

The first expansion pack, aptly named Expedition, takes place directly after the “campaign” and involves an Alien like forrest of sorts which will also include various alien architecture and technology.

The DLC will arrive in May and the maps are called Swampland, Runoff, and Wargames. The DLC is included with the $25 Titanfall DLC pass, though it’s not clear what it will cost as a standalone download. Two other map pack expansions are coming to Titanfall, though Respawn hasn’t said when they will be delivered.

The maps will feature a more elaborate form of traversal: trees. You thought wall-running was fun on buildings? Apparently we haven’t seen anything yet. Allowing for  infinite possible traversal variants; you’ll be able to jump, wall hang, and sprint across an entire jungle. Also the map Wargames will be a variation of  “pilot training” which they said bears a strong resemblance to the movie Tron…which frankly, just sounds awesome. 

Respawn also confirmed at PAX East that a new 2v2 Last Titan Standing mode is coming to the game as a free update sometime in the future along with many other tweaks and balances. There will also be new TITAN SPECIFIC Burn Cards along with more permanent  customization options for your titan and possibly the characters.

The developers also revealed a new “hashtag” system for Titanfall, through which players with similar interests can play together. I’m sure a lot of bugs need to be worked out because it’s pretty unclear how it’ll work in the endgame but apparently if you and all your buddies add the #YOLO to your gamer tag within the game – you’ll all be able to find each other easier in matchmaking. 

E-Sports (and all other hyper-compedative players) will hopefully also have reason to rejoice because the team is indeed elaborately looking into making the game compatible and more customization friendly. They plan to include custom loadouts and make weapon sets for different modes. You’ll also be able to filter challenges in different ways and review game scores in the lobby. Everything is being considered and weighed appropriately.

Finally Geoff Keighley, who just finished spending three weeks at Respawn working on a feature, also revealed that the studio did create a single-player mode for Titanfall before finally settling on making it “multiplayer only”. This makes me very curious for the future of Titanfall and when possible sequels will come into play.

In a short conclusion: Titanfall is Respawn’s sole responsibility and the only thing they’re currently working on. Right now the only paid DLC will include new maps while all further updates to the game will be rolled out for free to every player that wants to continue brutally killing each other in giant mechs.