The Mercenaries franchise has been on hiatus since the closure of Pandemic Studios who developed the previous entry in the series. Now rumors are running wild that the mystery third person shooter title that Electronic Arts is developing is none other than Mercenaries 3.

According to the rumbling that we are hearing, the new Mercenaries 3 will be powered by DICE’s Frostbite 2 engine and is apparently being developed at EA’s Los Angeles studio. While some claim that Medal of Honor studio Danger Close is actually the team doing the development we have been unable to confirm if this is the case, but it seems unlikely.

If the rumors are true, then we spotted a job listing for “…a Senior Multiplayer Designer to work on an unannounced third person shooter title that will have a strong multiplayer focus and use the Frostbite 2 tool set.” This, of course, does seem to add fuel to the fire.

While we do know that DICE is working on something else that has yet to be announced beyond the current Battlefield projects, it is hard to imagine that they would be working on Mercenaries 3; but it is possible, as the studio has had roles in augmenting the development of such recent releases as the Medal of Honor reboot and the Need for Speed Hot Pursuit reboot. So, it is possible that they could be involved given that the title is using the Frostbite 2 engine. Our sources tell us to look for an announcement at E3, which is actually starting to sound like a broken record these days; almost every title rumor we hear ends with a close that we should expect an announcement at E3.