Marcus Lehto was one of the lead developers on the Battlefield IP, but due to changes at Electronic Arts (or its EA Entertainment division), he doesn’t have a very positive opinion of his former job.
Lehto is no stranger to the gaming industry. He previously worked at Bungie, where he made his name as the co-creator of Halo, but ended up at Ridgeline Games. He co-founded the studio and the team was tasked with creating a new single-player Battlefield. Lehto was the director and was in charge of the narrative, so he had an important role to play in Electronic Arts’ franchise, which was able to keep up with Call of Duty in the first half of the 2010s, but the reception of Battlefield 2042 was not very good, either critically or sales-wise, so the publisher had to shuffle the deck.
But Lehto left in February under unclear circumstances, leaving Ridgeline Games and Electronic Arts behind, and a few days later the publisher announced it was laying off 5% of its staff, leaving around 700 people out of work. Ridgeline Games was also shut down, and some of those employees went to Los Angeles-based Ripple Effect, which is working on a multiplayer experience based on the Battlefield IP.
Until now, Lehto has not spoken about what happened after his departure. Now, however, he’s taken to Twitter to voice some pretty strong criticism of his former employer: “I haven’t said much here because I don’t have anything positive to say about EA, my recent departure, and how so many, including my team, are suffering from the industry-wide layoffs.” He liked many of the responses, including one that called Electronic Arts the epitome of corporate greed.
So one can conclude that Lehto would have liked to stay at Electronic Arts, but Andrew Wilson pulled the rug out from under him, and he is so critical of the publisher.
Soucre: VGC
Not been saying much here since I don’t have anything positive to say about EA, my recent departure, and how so many, including my team, are suffering due to the industry sweeping layoffs.
— Marcus Lehto 🇺🇦 (@game_fabricator) March 15, 2024
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