After leaving the Battlefield ship last month, former franchise director Marcus Lehto emerges from contrite silence. He actually seems to have some resentment towards his former employer, Electronic Arts.
Before taking care of the famous Battlefield franchise, the man had some experience in the world of FPS. He was actually involved in co-creating Halo at Bungie, no less! But it seems he and Electronic Arts recently parted ways on less than amicable terms…
Battlefield: When friendly fire goes beyond the virtual framework
The least we can say is that the Battlefield franchise isn’t what it once was. Long a benchmark for multiplayer FPS, it’s currently stuck in a tornado. A month ago, its influential director Marcus Lehto secretly decided to leave the battlefield. The day after the public confirmation, Electronic Arts announced the layoff of 5% of its workforce. Among other things, the Ridgeline studio, which was behind the development of a single-player site 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 person primarily affected has now emerged from 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 the reasons why so many people, including my team, are suffering from massive layoffs in the industry ».
A once-cult franchise now an orphan?
In addition to Electronic Arts’ popularity, which has been declining for years, Battlefield’s popularity is also currently at its lowest point. Battlefield 2042 was a dismal failure in many ways. In any case, the players accepted the title coldly. Clumsy new direction, bugs of all kinds, lack of new content, the list goes on. However, Electronic Arts wanted to take the vice to the extreme by creating a “universe” around this game.
Unfortunately, things are looking very bad for Battlefield 7 at the moment. Following the departure of Marcus Lehto, it was creative director Craig Morrison who set sail last week. If we forget these repeated departures, the direction the next work takes becomes cause for concern. We are actually talking about a “ connected ecosystem » (meant by “ possibly annual service game » a la Call of Duty. At least we can remember the return to 64-player servers and the traditional four-tier system… right?
