A major EA employee seems to have left under mysterious circumstances.
Update: Lehto has confirmed his exit from Ridgeline Games and EA, and is in fact leaving the industry altogether. He also stated that this was his decision, and not EA’s or Ridgeline’s. We wish Lehto well on his retirement or sabbatical, whatever the case may be. The original article follows below.
As reported by Video Games Chronicle and Eurogamer, Marcus Lehto of Ridgeline Games has left EA. Lehto was originally known as one of the people who helped found the Halo franchise. He and EA then co-founded Ridgeline Games, a studio which would be dedicated to helping make the Battlefield games.
Lehto did not announce his departure. Instead, dataminers found that Lehto had removed references to his employment at EA and work at Ridgeline Games online. Video Games Chronicle confirmed this for his Twitter and Facebook accounts. Subsequently, Eurogamer confirmed his professional LinkedIn account shows that he is a former employee of the company and of Ridgeline Games.
Making things even more suspicious, EA did not post any job openings to replace Lehto. It may be the case that they would be looking got his replacement internally.
In December 2021, a month after the failed launch of Battlefield 2042, EA announced new plans to create a connected Battlefield universe. The shakeup that followed led to DICE general manager Oskar Gabrielson leaving the company, and Vince Zampella of Respawn Entertainment taking over as the head of the Battlefield franchise.
However, we hadn’t seen any new Battlefield games made in that three year lifespan. To put that in perspective, Microsoft announced its acquisition of Activision Blizzard King, on January 18, 2022, and it finalized that acquisition, on October 13, 2023. For many of us, it felt like it took forever for Microsoft to complete it. Well, it has felt longer than forever since we saw a new Battlefield title.
We do understand part of the reason for this. Within that time, EA committed to fixing Battlefield 2042 to the point that it met player’s expectations, and they really spent two years working on it to fix it.
At the time the title finished its redemption arc, we had compared it to how CD Projekt RED committed to fixing Cyberpunk 2077, but there is one major difference. Battlefield 2042 is a live service game, and that commitment did make many players decide to keep playing and patiently wait for improvements.
That means Battlefield 2042 made EA money this whole time, and even if it isn’t as much money as it would have made if it was a good game from the start, EA did get their fill of revenue.
So there was no rush to get any new Battlefield games out, but why is there no new title announced for this year? That Lehto left at this point can only be interpreted as a sign of issues behind the scenes at EA for the franchise.
While we can’t say for sure they’ll do it, EA should address this issue before speculation goes rampant, by talking about Battlefield right now. If they have a title not ready to show, they can at least announce it. If they don’t have a title, just talking about the situation will still be better than nothing. But at this point, the ball is in EA’s court. We’ll just have to see if they decide to make such a public response.
