EA Montreal arming Army of Two sequel?

What we heard: As part of EA's dismal third-quarter earnings report in February, CEO John Riccitiello made much of the fact that his company needs to spend more time building up marketing efforts in the lead-up to the launch of its top games. As it turns out, one way the publisher will do so is by officially announcing that an official announcement will be forthcoming--officially--in the near future.

Such was the case yesterday, when EA made much to do about an impending reveal from its Montreal studio, preannouncing that an announcement for the mystery project would be made on March 12. According to the publisher, VP and EA Montreal general manager Alain Tascan will join members of the development team to give media a first look at the project on March 9, with impressions and interviews embargoed until March 16.

Immediately, speculation arose on what the mystery project would be, with most fingers pointing to a sequel to arguably EA Montreal's highest-profile--and most certainly tasteless--effort, Army of Two. Today, that speculation picked up further steam, as the official Army of Two Web site has been updated with a new teaser page. On the page, site visitors will see a portrait of a grizzled military man's face, as well as the words "Submit."

The official story: EA had not returned requests for comment as of press time.

Bogus or not bogus?: Interestingly, the strongest evidence supporting the imminent reveal of an Army of Two sequel comes from metadata buried in the page's code. A descriptor for the site reads: "Army to [sic] Two. The definitive third person shooter is back." (Emphasis added.) Therefore, an Army of Two sequel announcement is most certainly on the horizon, and the stars seem to be aligning for a March 12 reveal. Looking not bogus.