Outgoing Battlefield director says he ‘has nothing positive to say about EA’

The former director of a new Battlefield game has criticised EA, after he recently left the company and saw the studio he co-founded closed.

Marcus Lehto, who co-created the Halo franchise at Bungie, founded Seattle-based Electronic Arts studio Ridgeline Games in 2021.

At Ridgeline, Lehto was directing a new single-player Battlefield game. However, he left the studio under unclear circumstances last month, and shortly after EA confirmed It had closed Ridgeline Games entirely.

On Friday, Lehto commented on the experience on X, writing: “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.”

The game designer then liked responses from fans, including one message calling EA “the epitome of corporate greed”.

In a statement published last month alongside the announcement of nearly 700 company-wide layoffs, EA Entertainment president Laura Miele confirmed that Ridgeline would now be “winding down”.

Some staff would move to Los Angeles-based Ripple Effect, the exec claimed, which is working on a future multiplayer experience for the Battlefield series. Criterion Games, the studio behind recent Need for Speed games, will now oversee Battlefield’s next single-player project.

“Marcus Lehto recently made a personal decision to leave the project,” she said. “To ensure our work continues uninterrupted, we immediately appointed leadership at Criterion to oversee our single-player work.

“As part of this change, we’ll be winding down Ridgeline as a standalone studio in Seattle, with some team members joining Ripple Effect. They’ll continue to work with teams across DICE, Ripple, and Criterion as they build the next Battlefield experience.”