Electronic Arts dropped the biggest news of the day by announcing major layoffs cutting 5% of its workforce and impacting 670 talented individuals. It seems the next Battlefield game will see an impact as EA has officially shut down Ridgeline Games, the studio that was working on the single-player for Battlefield.
Reports suggest that the development of single-player content in Battlefield is being moved to Criterion. Here is what Laura Miele, President of EA Entertainment and Technology said about the recent move:
“To ensure our work continues uninterrupted, we immediately appointed leadership at Criterion to oversee our single-player work.
“As part of this change, we’ll be winding down Ridgeline as a standalone studio in Seattle, with some team members joining Ripple Effect. They’ll continue to work with teams across DICE, Ripple, and Criterion as they build the next Battlefield experience.”
Marcus Lehto recently left the studio days before this news dropped. The veteran game developer who also worked on Halo is devastated by the news:
Gut punched to see EA lay off my team. So many very talented devs who were incredibly valuable to the Battlefield franchise. https://t.co/N3lYSjeO6z
— Marcus Lehto (@game_fabricator) February 28, 2024
It was not too long ago either that a report was shared from Insider Gaming that the next Battlefield game will have a free-to-play Battle Royale mode similar to what Call of Duty has with Warzone. The next Battlefield game still isn’t expected to come out until 2025, but it will be interesting to see how EA handles it.
EA has also canceled its unannounced Star Wars FPS game that was expected to be the first game of The Mandalorian from Respawn Entertainment.
Source: Insider Gaming