Halo co-creator that joined EA to work on Battlefield ‘gut punched’ as publisher lays off entire team: ‘I don’t have anything positive to say about EA’
Halo co-creator that joined EA to work on Battlefield ‘gut punched’ as publisher lays off entire team: ‘I don’t have anything positive to say about EA’
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“It’s in my nature” the scorpion said.
article:
Marcus Lehto is the co-creator of the Halo games and, until 2012, was a senior creative on every Halo game made by Bungie. After that he left to set up on his own with the studio V1 Interactive (which made the shooter Disintegration), before joining EA in 2021 and founding Ridgeline Games, a Seattle-based developer that was working on a new Battlefield game with more of a story focus.
I say “was” because unfortunately Ridgeline has become one of the latest victims in a brutal period of game and tech layoffs. At the end of February EA announced that it would be closing the studio, and laying off all of its staff. Around the same time, Lehto announced he would be leaving the publisher. And he’s not a happy camper.
“Gut punched to see EA lay off my team,” said Lehto on X. “So many very talented devs who were incredibly valuable to the Battlefield franchise.”
Lehto wants to make one thing clear: “Yes, I left EA on my own accord. This was a very tough decision for me to make.” He thanks the Battlefield community, and wishes the remaining teams at EA all the best for the future, then turns his guns on the publisher.
“Not been saying much here since I don’t have anything positive to say about EA [and] my recent departure,” says Lehto. “And how so many, including my team, are suffering due to the industry sweeping layoffs.” Lehto later posted on LinkedIn saying he’s “incredibly upset and very sad” about the layoffs and Ridgeline “are very talented people whose lives are being upended needlessly.”
The single-player campaign in the works at Ridgeline was a co-development with DICE, which Lehto had previously said would “engage players in new ways.” It was apparently a standalone project, though what if anything will happen to it now is unknown.
Lehto’s enough of an industry veteran not to say what he really thinks: but you can certainly tell what he really thinks, and clearly this one cuts deep. Lehto ended his post by announcing he’s going to take a break from the industry, and think about whether he even wants to return. “In the meantime, I will be taking time away from games to see what, if anything, I want to do next.”
>I don’t have anything positive to say about EA
Neither do I, and it didn’t take getting fired by them either.
Yeah, a lot of us don’t. Makes you wonder why working for them would be seen as a bad idea….
Yeah, I can’t say I have anything positive to say about EA ether. Well other then at least they’re not Ubisoft.
Nobody does, what a shocker.
We’ve been telling people to stop preordering for ever. Going to work at EA is a self inflicted wound you absolutely could have seen coming. They don’t respect devs. It’s been at least 15 years of this bullshit.
Overly greedy company does not give a fuck about their employees? I for one, am shocked
Can’t spell steal or death without EA
This makes me feel bad for buying bf2042 for $9. Somehow, that game has worse graphics than bf5 even on ultra settings, and the change in gameplay feel noticeable immediately.
I’m not sure if I will ever even feel the need to buy another game from this publisher again. What a bunch of corporate sellouts.
He shoulda probably known that before he joined. Everyone else did.
Surprise employment mechanic
I think this is a general sentiment across the entire gaming industry right now. I’ve known a few folks who have been laid off for one reason or another 3+ times in the last 9 months. It’s despicable. I’ve also worked alongside a lot of EA devs over the years, and most of them don’t have flattering things to say about EA.
Most of us don’t have anything positive to say about EA.
r/leopardsatemyface
Why don’t these developers just make their own games like a lot of the single developers do? Thinking Lethal Company, Stardew Valley, etc.
I’m guessing it’s a benefits thing, but legitimately curious why this doesn’t happen more often.
Why in God’s name would you join a company to work on a clearly failing franchise, then be angry it failed?
This is like a Bears coach being big mad when the whole staff gets fired after yet another bad season.
What did they expect? EA hasn’t been a good company in the gaming industry since around the time of The Sims 3.
Copium, but one day Battlefield will be good again…
One positive thing I can say about EA is that BF3, BF4, One, and V servers still have people, are running, and are pretty accessible to play on. So that’s nice while I wait.
Has anyone had something positive to say about EA since 2005?
Worked as QA on console multiplayer Battlefield back in 2004/2005. The DICE devs were already at that point using us in QA as therapy for all their complaints against EA, who were more and more encroaching on steering the game development.
Damn that game he made before this totally tanked as well, he has not had the best luck since halo.
This article is a bit misleading in multiple ways.
First, most of his team was transferred over Ripple Effect.
Second, Lehto and Ridgeline Games were responsible for developing the narrative story for battlefield. They were a very small studio of I think less than 20. They were co developing the singleplayer campaign of battlefield with Ripple Effect. With Ridgeline Games writing the story and Ripple Effect developing the singleplayer campaign. Hence the small team at Ridgeline.
Third, Ridgeline Game was likely shut down due to Lehto leaving. It is extremely common for video game studios to fail after their leadership leave. This is why most of the employees were brought over to Ripple Effect.
Fourth, this news is almost a month old.
EA has sucked so bad for decades and now they’re scraping the bottom of the barrel
When I worked at EA . The lead creative director on the project I worked on was one of the OG World of Warcraft designers and after the project was shuttered due to mismanagement at the EP level he quit the game industry fully for like 5 years due to the stress and bullshit EA put him through.