After leaving the Battlefield ship last month, the former director of the franchise Marcus Lehto comes out of a contrite silence. He indeed seems to carry a certain grudge against his former employer, Electronic Arts.
Before taking care of the famous Battlefield franchise, the man had some experience in the world of FPS. He actually participated in the co-creation of Halo at Bungie, no less! But it seems that he and Electronic Arts recently parted ways not on the best terms…
Battlefield: when friendly fire goes beyond the virtual framework
The least we can say is that the Battlefield franchise is no longer what it used to be. For a long time a benchmark for multiplayer FPS, it is currently stuck in a tornado. A month ago, its influential director Marcus Lehto secretly decided to leave the battlefield. The day after public confirmation, Electronic Arts announced the layoff of 5% of its workforce. In the process, the Ridgeline studio, behind the development of a single-player side for Battlefield, closed its doors. According to Laura Miele, president of EA Technology, this decision was partly motivated by the departure of Marcus Lehto.
The main person concerned has since come out of his dismayed silence via his X account (formerly Twitter). “ I haven’t said much here in a while. At the same time, I don’t have much positive to say about EA, my recent departure, and why so many people, including my team, are suffering due to massive layoffs within the industry “.
A once cult franchise that is now an orphan?
In addition to the popularity of Electronic Arts which has been declining for years, that of Battlefield is also currently at its lowest. Battelfield 2042 was a dismal failure in many ways. In any case, the players received the title coldly. Clumsy new direction, bugs of all kinds, lack of new content, the list goes on. However, Electronic Arts wanted to push the vice to the limit by creating a “universe” around this game.
Unfortunately, things are looking very bad for Battlefield 7 at the moment. After the departure of Marcus Lehto, it was creative director Craig Morrison who set sail last week. If we forget these repeated departures, the direction taken around the next opus is cause for concern. We are indeed talking about a “ connected ecosystem » (mean by “ potentially annual service game » à la Call of Duty. At least we can remember the return to 64-player servers and the traditional four-class system… right?