What the heck is Respawn up to?

The studio released its first game, the successful online first-person shooter Titanfall, earlier this year. Of course, we all expect an eventual sequel, but job listings on Respawn’s site are looking for developers with experience in third-person action/adventure games. That doesn’t sound like Titanfall at all, at least as we know it.

Originally found by a member of the Neogaf community, the openings include a senior systems designer, a senior animator, a senior character artist, and a software engineer. All of those listings specifically ask for people with experience working on third-person games.

We reached out to Respawn and are awaiting comment.

So, what’s going on? Perhaps the next Titanfall will include a new single-player mode that uses a third-person perspective. The original didn’t have a solo campaign. Instead, it attempted to innovate by weaving a story through a series of online matches. However, the experiment was mixed, with fans complaining that the campaign didn’t offer enough story or challenge (you don’t have to win a single match to advance through the whole thing).

Of course, Respawn may be working on a different series. But that would be surprising. Previous employees of Infinity Ward, the main developer behind of Call of Duty, make up Respawn. Infinity Ward does nothing but make Call of Duty, a trend we expected Respawn to repeat with the Titanfall franchise. Perhaps Respawn is trying to differentiate itself by branching out a bit more.

And Respawn already hired God of War III director Stig Asmussen this year. God of War III was a huge third-person action game, so maybe Asmussen is heading up development on this new venture.