In an announcement today, general manager of the Battlefield series Byron Beede announced that Ridgeline Games, the new EA studio led by Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto, is developing the next singleplayer campaign in the series.
Beede also wrote that they are “all-in on Battlefield”, with DICE continuing to work on Battlefield multiplayer and a third studio, Ripple Effect, “creating an entirely new Battlefield experience.”
“As we approach our 20th anniversary, we’d like to share the future of the franchise and be clear with you on our vision: We are all-in on Battlefield,” says the post on the EA site, which comes two days before the Battlefield series’ 20th anniversary.
The announcement goes on to reveal the name of Lehto’s new studio, Ridgeline Games, and that they will be developing “a narrative campaign set in the Battlefield universe.”
It was announced at the end of last year that Lehto’s new studio, then unnamed, was working on singleplayer Battlefield content, although it was said this story content would be included in “later seasons” of the ailing Battlefield 2042. That’s apparently no longer the case, as the Battlefield Twitter account clarified that, “The new narrative campaign experience @RidgelineGames is working on is not part of #Battlefield 2042. It will be set in the Battlefield universe.”
For clarification: The new narrative campaign experience @RidgelineGames is working on is not part of #Battlefield 2042. It will be set in the Battlefield universe.
— Battlefield (@Battlefield) September 8, 2022
Lehto is best known for being creative director at Bungie and is generally credited as a co-creator of the Halo universe. His most recent studio was V1 Interactive, which in 2020 released Disintegration, an FPS and RTS hybrid. Its multiplayer servers shut down just five months after release, and V1 Interactive closed their doors four months later.
Battlefield has had a similarly rough recent history, with Battlefield 2042 launching minus core features and with plentiful bugs. Post-release updates have aimed to address both those problems, although they’ve also removed some of the game’s unique features, too.