Respawn plans to expand the longevity of Titanfall 2‘s multiplayer scene, one way is with something called Networks.
The feature has been alluded to over the past few months, but has not been detailed in full until now. Respawn has previously described it as something that makes it “easy to play with friends old and new.”
Today, they revealed that it plans to do this through what amounts to a type of clan system. You create a Network (which can have at least a few dozen members) that players can join, either to group up with friends or find strangers to match up with. Networks can be given different labels to indicate, for example, competitive or casual play.
Players are allowed to join multiple Networks. The idea behind this is to give players a smaller pool of people to associate with than what would be available through simple matchmaking.
Respawn’s overall goal is to help make sure the pattern of the original Titanfall is repeated. Players loved the game but left shortly after its launch, making it difficult to find a match (especially on PC). Attempts were made to lure players back in by offering DLC for free and adding a Horde-style mode, but these were unsuccessful.
Although, it looks like Titanfall 2 already has a leg up on its predecessor in several ways. The player base is much larger than at the time of Titanfall 1‘s launch, at least on consoles. There won’t be any premium DLC packs to divide players, and also better matchmaking tactics have been implemented.