New Battlefield Developer Ridgeline Games Loses Studio Co-Founder

26.02.2024 - 20:17 / gamerant.com / Andrew Wilson / Stuart Canfield / Marcus Lehto / Ea / Dane Enerio

Ridgeline Games, a relatively new development studio owned by publishing giant Electronic Arts, has lost one of its founders. This comes after one of the studio's key figures also left in January and joined another game company.

Established in late 2022, Ridgeline Games has been developing a narrative campaign set in the Battlefield universe. The American studio was headed by game director Marcus Lehto, who co-created the Halo franchise at Bungie. It seems, however, that Lehto has quietly left Ridgeline Games even though there were no signs of trouble at the Seattle-based company.

Lehto, a co-founder of Ridgeline Games, stopped working for EA in February, according to his LinkedIn profile. The industry veteran's Twitter page also no longer mentions Battlefield or EA, content creators like DANNYonPC were able to spot. As head of Ridgeline Games, Lehto was supposed to bring his experience in creating worlds to EA's Battlefield series, shaping its narrative while under the supervision of franchise head and Respawn Entertainment CEO Vince Zampella.

No details regarding Lehto's departure from Ridgeline Games have been revealed. In an early February Twitter post, Lehto shared a photo of the Ridgeline Games team with the caption, «So great to hang out with these amazingly talented folks.» Just weeks prior, another Ridgeline Games co-founder, Chris Matthews, left the company and joined current Halo franchise steward 343 Industries as a studio art director. 343 Industries is seemingly working on a new unannounced internal project, the LinkedIn profiles of the developer's employees indicated.

During EA's recent Q3 2024 earnings report conference call, CFO Stuart Canfield revealed that the company plans to have new releases for franchises like Battlefield, Mass Effect, and Star Wars in fiscal year 2025. If it follows the precedents set by most of its predecessors, the next mainline Battlefield entry will be released sometime in fall 2025. EA CEO Andrew Wilson previously said that the next Battlefield game will be a reimagination of the series that will feature a connected ecosystem.

Aside from Ridgeline Games and Battlefield series creator DICE, there are several other studios that are currently working on the venerated shooter franchise. The Los Angeles-based Ripple Effect Studios, which contributes to the development of the highly criticized Battlefield 2042, has started on a yet-to-be announced project. Meanwhile, British studio Criterion Games of Burnout fame moved EA divisions in late 2023 so it could focus on the Battlefield series.

EA's Battlefield franchise is a series of first-person shooter games. The games have predominantly been set in the modern day, though there have also been titles set in World War 1,