Former single-player Battlefield lead has ‘nothing positive to say’ about working with EA

A few weeks ago, Halo co-creator, Marcus Lehto, announced plans to leave EA and his newly formed Battlefield studio, Ridgeline Games. Just a day later, EA confirmed it was shutting down the studio entirely and handing future single-player Battlefield development over to Critereon, alongside other studios. Now, it seems Lehto's departure wasn't as amicable as it first seemed. 

Lehto has been quiet on social media since announcing his departure from Ridgeline Games, a studio that he founded under EA two years ago, with plans to develop a new single-player Battlefield campaign. Rather than appointing new leadership to the studio after Lehto's departure, EA decided to shut down the whole operation and move development of projects to other studios.

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

In a new message posted to Twitter recently, Lehto states that he doesn't have “anything positive to say about EA”. Specifically, he takes issue with the circumstances around his departure and the following layoffs that ensued, leaving his former team out of jobs.

It is still unclear exactly what went on behind the scenes and Lehto doesn't appear to be spilling any specific information right now. However, with Ridgeline Games ‘winding down', there is a good chance someone will share some details on what life was like at the studio leading up to its abrupt closure.

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KitGuru Says: A lot of publishers are in tough positions right now. The desire to see constant growth on the balance sheet has led to many layoffs throughout the industry since the pandemic, impacting major publishers and platform holders like PlayStation and Xbox. The only company that seems to be getting through this unscathed is Nintendo, although Nintendo has always had a different philosophy when it comes to the gaming business, something that shines through with their consistent quality releases. 

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