Electronic Arts has announced plans to build a “connected Battlefield universe,” as part of sweeping changes to the development teams behind the military shooter. As part of the changes, Vince Zampella – co-founder of Respawn, developer of Apex Legends – currently oversees the Battlefield franchise, and Marcus Lehto (best known for Halo) is building a new studio to create out the narrative experience in the series.
All these changes happen after Battlefield 2042the launch of Errors and negative user reviews.
Zampella tell Gamespot that these new projects are not designed to replace or succeed 2042, but to “grow and grow” it.
Marcus Lehto is the artist recognized as the designer of Master Chief, and most recently the founder of V1 Interactive, who launched the short-lived Disintegration program last year. Lehto announced that he is starting a new Seattle-based studio with EA in October, but this is the first news on what the new team will be working on.
EA Senior Vice President Byron Beede tell Gamespot that what Lehto’s team created will appear in the “later seasons” of Battlefield 2042. Ripple Effect, the EA studio responsible for Battlefield 2042’s Portal mode, is also said to be developing a “Battlefield experience” new” in the Battlefield 2042 universe.
Staffing changes also include the departure of Oskar Gabrielson, general manager of the original Battlefield creators DICE.
Ed wrote in Review Battlefield 2042. “This game takes time. Time to untangle those performance issues and perhaps tweak the Danger Zone’s economy. Portals need time to save it from the hordes of servers that feed XP. I Having enough patience is another matter entirely. Simply put: this is a game that doesn’t seem ready yet.”
In this context, new studios embarking on game development and expanding on it seem welcome – although any of this really makes sense or what it will yield, is what anyone can guess. A mediocre single-player DLC about a future terrorist that only your elite unit of brother soldiers can stop, culminating in a QTE fight against a man named Russia on the planet. the top of a skyscraper in Rio? I wouldn’t bet against it.
