Battlefield 2042 would not embody a singleplayer marketing campaign, however one thing like a brand new Battlefield marketing campaign might be within the early levels of growth. EA introduced at the moment that Respawn co-founder Vince Zampella will oversee the Battlefield collection from right here on out, and that new Battlefield “experiences” are coming from Ripple Impact, the studio that made Battlefield 2042’s Portal mode, in addition to a brand new Seattle-based studio led by Marcus Lehto, the previous Bungie artwork and inventive director who designed Grasp Chief.
In the meantime, DICE normal supervisor Oskar Gabrielson is leaving the corporate, and former Ubisoft Annecy studio director Rebecka Coutaz is taking his place.
The information comes from GameSpot. Whereas EA did not explicitly inform the web site that Ripple Impact and the Seattle studios might be making standalone Battlefield video games within the newly christened “Battlefield universe”—t’s all “experiences”—I am assured that we will count on a number of standalone video games primarily based on my information of EA, the studios, and the individuals concerned.
Ripple Impact was known as DICE LA and was renamed simply earlier than Battlefield 2042 launched, signaling that it ought to now not be regarded as a department of DICE however its personal inventive unit. Zampella has previously said that the studio is engaged on a brand new sport, and instructed GameSpot that “something is feasible” for these upcoming Battlefield tasks.
As for the unnamed Seattle studio, Lehto has been charged with “increasing the narrative, storytelling, and character growth alternatives within the Battlefield collection,” in response to GameSpot. That can embody a “number of experiences” that we’ll see in Battlefield 2042’s later seasons and “past,” in response to Byron Beede, one other new Battlefield chief at EA who spent virtually 20 years at Activision, most just lately overseeing all of Name of Obligation.
It feels like Lehto’s studio will begin by fleshing out Battlefield 2042’s unfastened narrative about stateless mercenaries, however one thing greater—a brand new sport or a marketing campaign for the subsequent DICE Battlefield sport—is sort of positively within the plans for the Seattle developer. Lehto is just too massive of a reputation to deliver on for, say, Battlefield 2042 cinematic trailers and nothing else. His earlier sport, Disintegration, failed to take off, however he was a principal member of Halo’s inventive workforce from the primary sport by way of Halo: Attain, for which he served as inventive director.
My final decade with the workforce at @EA_DICE has been nothing wanting wonderful. There have simply been so many nice recollections working with our groups. However I’ve now made one of many hardest choices of my life, to depart DICE and Digital Arts. pic.twitter.com/NVck19pSkhDecember 2, 2021
No matter follows Battlefield 2042 in the primary Battlefield collection will presumably nonetheless come from Swedish studio DICE, at the very least partially, however with a brand new chief. Outgoing GM Gabrielson has been engaged on the collection since Battlefield 3.
“There have simply been so many nice recollections working with our groups,” stated Gabrielson in a tweet. “However I’ve now made one of many hardest choices of my life, to depart DICE and Digital Arts.”
The positioning of Zampella as the brand new Battlefield overseer and Gabrielson’s departure do not seem to have something to do with the adversity Battlefield 2042 is at present dealing with within the Steam person critiques part, the place its ranking stays “principally adverse.” Zampella had already been overseeing Ripple Impact, so whereas it is stunning that he is taking up a lot duty on prime of his duties as CEO of Apex: Legends and Jedi: Fallen Order developer Respawn, it was foreshadowed.
In the meantime, Gabrielson’s choice to maneuver on could not have been made immediately, as his successor was instantly named. New DICE GM Rebecka Coutaz beforehand ran Ubisoft Annecy in France, which led growth of Steep and contributed to The Division video games and several other Murderer’s Creeds. Earlier than that, she labored on plenty of Atari video games. Gabrielson is staying at DICE for now to assist with the transition.
“We’re excited for the longer term and remained targeted on supporting Battlefield 2042 within the years forward,” tweeted the studio.
We additionally welcome Rebecka Coutaz as our new Studio GM right here at DICEWe’re excited for the longer term and remained targeted on supporting #Battlefield 2042 within the years forward 💪 pic.twitter.com/Ag8RbVDWLZDecember 2, 2021
Battlefield 2042 got a big patch today with tons of of tweaks and fixes, in addition to some new choices to mess with in Battlefield Portal. (For some PC gamers, the replace broke their mouse enter—oops. Evan has helpfully explained how to manually fix the issue till DICE patches the patch’s drawback.)
I proceed to enjoy Battlefield 2042, which refocuses the collection on scale whereas decreasing its complexity in some methods, nevertheless it’s been a contentious one, to say the least. Many gamers take into account it a complete failure, discovering nothing redeeming within the new specialist characters, the bigger however much less dense maps, and the selection to drop sure Battlefield 1 and Battlefield 5 options. The omission of a singleplayer marketing campaign has additionally been cited as a disappointment.
My first expertise with the Battlefield collection got here almost 20 years in the past with Battlefield 1942, which additionally had no singleplayer marketing campaign, so I’ve all the time considered them as pointless equipment. Storytelling is clearly an essential a part of the collection for many individuals, although, and that appears to be the job of Lehto’s studio now.
A lot of the opposite news relayed by GameSpot is imprecise: EA COO Laura Miele says the corporate is “all in” on Battlefield and desires to “unlock its monumental potential,” which in fact it does. However the departure of Gabrielson and appointment of recent overseers—Zampella, Coutaz, Lehto, and Beede—does mark the current as a transparent turning level for the collection, which hasn’t gone almost as wild with spin-offs and expanded universe stuff because it might have over the previous 19 years.
Probably the most notable contribution from a non-DICE studio was Battlefield Hardline, the bizarre cops-‘n-robbers Battlefield that was led by Lifeless House studio Visceral Video games earlier than it was shut down. Battlefield Heroes and Battlefield Play4Free are a few different collection offshoots, and definitely one risk is that EA places out one other free-to-play Battlefield sport in some unspecified time in the future. Zampella has expertise in that regard, and Beede comes from Name of Obligation, whose free-to-play Warzone battle royale sport has eclipsed the primary collection in recognition.
