Marcus Lehto – co-creator of the Halo universe and former lead of the recently shuttered Ridgeline Games – says he doesn’t have “anything positive to say about EA”.
At the end of February, Lehto confirmed he had left EA “on my own accord”, and would now take time away from video games to work out “what, if anything, I want to do next”. The director later admitted feeling “gut-punched to see EA lay off my team. So many very talented devs who were incredibly valuable to the Battlefield franchise”.
Newscast: Why are there so many games industry layoffs?
In the latest statement posted to X/Twitter, Lehto simply said: “Not been saying much here since I don’t have anything positive to say about EA, my recent departure, and how so many, including my team, are suffering due to the industry sweeping layoffs”.
Ridgeline – previously led by Lehto – had been working on a narrative-led Battlefield campaign. The project will now be completed by Need for Speed studio Criterion Games.
The news about Ridgeline came as part of a further wave of layoffs at EA, with five per cent of the company – around 670 people – set to be let go. This is on top of the six per cent of EA’s workforce the publisher made redundant in March last year.
As Tom summarised for us at the time, when announcing the news, EA boss Andrew Wilson said the company was moving away from “future licensed IP” to focus on “owned IP, sports, and massive online communities”. The company’s in-progress Black Panther and Iron Man titles remain in development; however, a Star Wars shooter being developed by Apex Legends and Titanfall studio Respawn – reportedly a Mandalorian game – has been cancelled.
