Electronic Arts announced a new studio dedicated to developing single-player narrative campaigns for the Battlefield franchise. Located in Kirkland, Washington, the studio is called Ridgeline Games and is led by game director and Halo-co-creator Marcus Lehto.
“It is a great honor to have the opportunity to collaborate with DICE and Ripple Effect and lead the charge on expanding the narrative, storytelling, and character development opportunities in the Battlefield series,” says Lehto in a statement.
Vince Zampella, founder of Respawn Games and head of the Battlefield franchise adds, “We’re continuing to invest in the future of the franchise by bringing in new talent and perspectives … With Marcus and his team at Ridgeline Games joining the world-class global team we have already in place, Battlefield is in the strongest position to succeed.”
We're all in on the future of Battlefield! We're continuing to support #BF2042, and welcome our new studio, @RidgelineGames, who will be focusing on a narrative campaign.
Read more from GM Byron Beede 👇https://t.co/RHcHYe0opc pic.twitter.com/fO7eCHNDAB
— Battlefield (@Battlefield) September 8, 2022
The founding of Ridgeline Games is notable as the latest entry, Battlefield 2042, didn’t have a single-player campaign. Hopefully, this means that it returns as a staple component in future games. In general, Battlefield 2042 has struggled since its launch last year. In addition to being criticized for not having a campaign, support for some of the game’s multiplayer modes has been cut. It’s faced persistent bugs and been late in adding key features like scoreboards and voice chat.
On PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, the game’s Breakthrough mode allowed 128 players to simultaneously face each other in the same match. In May, however, the mode was permanently scaled back to only include half as many players.
Last year, Zampella also mentioned that EA is looking to expand the franchise and create a “connected Battlefield universe.”
