After the mixed start of Battlefield 2042, EA and Dice planned to return to their former strength with the next installment in the series. But development is not going smoothly: a studio founded specifically for Battlefield was closed in the wake of a wave of redundancies. Marcus Lehto, the head of the affected studio Ridgeline Games and co-founder of Halo, is extremely critical of EA Although he had already left his studio, the sudden end hit him hard. He commented on Twitter and emphasized that he currently had nothing positive to say about EA, especially in light of the layoffs in the industry.
Tensions between developers and publishers
Not been saying much here since I don’t have anything positive to say about EA, my recent departure, and how so many, including my team, are suffering due to the industry sweeping layoffs.
– Marcus Lehto 🇺🇦 (@game_fabricator) March 15, 2024
At the end of February, Marcus Lehto left Ridgeline Games at his own wish to take a break from the video game industry Shortly afterwards, EA closed the studio and transferred development to Criterion Games. Lehto expressed his dismay at this decision on Twitter, hinting that he and his team were suffering from the layoffs in the industry. Despite a lack of details, he signaled clear dissatisfaction with EA and received approval from other users who called the publisher greedy for profit.
Despite Lehto’s withdrawal and the closure of Ridgeline Games, development of the new Battlefield game continues. The single-player experience is now in the hands of the developers at Criterion, while Dice is in charge of the multiplayer mode. EA and Dice hope that the upcoming spin-off will not only delight fans of the series, but also win back the trust of critics
