After leaving the company last month, the former battlefield Director Marcus Lehto said he had “nothing positive to say about EA.”
At the end of February, Lehto apparently left Ridgeline Games, the studio he co-founded that developed the Battlefield franchise. The reasons for his departure were unclear at the time, but take into account that a few days later EA announced that it would lay off 5% of its staff and that Ridgeline Games was gradually disbanding as an independent studio. Leto has been noticeably quiet on Twitter since his departure, but earlier this week he made comments about the layoffs that were understandably harsh against EA.
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“Not much to say here because I have nothing positive to say about EA,” Lehto said, continuing, “I recently left and many people, including my team, are suffering due to mass layoffs in the industry” . Considering that 5% of the workforce represents approximately 670 people, I think Lehto’s comments are quite reasonable – especially considering that EA has already laid off 6% of its workforce in March 2023.
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Following Lehto’s departure from Ridgeline in February, Halo co-creator explain “I am voluntarily leaving EA. This has been a very difficult decision for me. I want to thank the Battlefield community for allowing me to listen to your opinions when I can. Your feedback will help make Battlefield the best it can be. Stronger. I wish the EA team all the best moving forward.” Lehto has yet to confirm his next steps in the industry, but he did say “In the meantime, I’ll take some time away from gaming to see what’s next for me. what, if anything, he wants to do,” so it’s entirely possible he’s leaving the industry altogether.
EA’s layoffs have hit the company quite hard, affecting teams at various developers owned by the publisher and even leading to the cancellation of a rumored The Mandalorian game. In some positive news, though, Bit Reactor and Respawns’ Star Wars tactics game has at least survived.