The start of Battlefield 2042 did not go as planned and was rather problematic. At DICE and EA, this is now leading to a big shift in chairs – with consequences for the future of the Battlefield franchise.
Publisher Electronic Arts has now reacted after the start of Battlefield 2042 and replaced the management team with regard to the Battlefield brand. With Vince Zampella, the responsible development team will be looked after by a veteran who grew up with the big competitor Call of Duty. As is known, he later broke away from Activision and Infinity Ward and founded his own EA studio with Res apwn Entertainment.
The co-founder of Respawn, which is responsible for Apex Legends and Titanfall, will oversee all work in the Battlefield franchise in the future. In Marcus Lehto, another action veteran is added to the team.
Lehto is none other than the co-creator of Halo; in the future he will also be the head of a new EA development studio. In addition, it should also help in setting up the game world and the narrative elements in Battlefield, according to a report by GameSpot.
In return, Oskar Gabrielson, the general manager of Battlefield developer DICE, takes his hat. He worked there for almost a decade. On Twitter, Gabrielson says it was one of the toughest decisions of his life to leave DICE. He will moderate the transition in the next few months before devoting himself to new adventures.
And what does the future of Battlefield look like under new leadership? According to EA, the plan is to build and establish a “connected Battlefield universe”. Several studios are to be involved, including DICE, Ripple Effect (Battlefield Portal), the new studio of Marcus Lehto from Seattle and Industrial Toys; The latter is working on a mobile game in the shooter universe under the leadership of Alex Seropian.
According to Zampella, the plan would initially be to further develop Battlefield 2042 and help it grow. Here they also want to explore new gaming experiences and business models.