Game Industry News: Marcus Letho Departs EA

Halo co-creator and Battlefield game director Marcus Letho has left EA, raising questions about the future of the Battlefield franchise.

Letho was leading the Seattle-based Ridgeline Games, an EA studio dedicated to the Battlefield series. Recent updates show that Letho has removed all references to Battlefield and EA from their social media bio and updated their LinkedIn profile to reflect their departure from EA.

Reports from “Battlefield connoisseur” DANNYonPC and Insider Gaming indicate that Ridgeline Games currently has no job openings listed on its careers site. Additionally, Chris Matthews, co-founder and art director at Ridgeline Games, left the studio in January 2024 to join Bungie as studio art director.

Although Letho has not formally announced their departure or discussed their future plans, Battlefield fans are speculating about the direction of the franchise. Letho was expected to provide guidance to the series post the mixed reception of Battlefield 2042. EA has not released an official statement regarding Letho’s exit.

We have reached out to EA for comments and will provide updates once we receive a response.

“For all its breadth and scope, Battlefield 2042 feels like the most muddled, compromised and confused entry in the series yet – a more existential problem than faced by the likes of Battlefield 4 through its similarly troubled launch,” the Eurogamer-editor-formerly-known-as-Martin wrote of Battlefield 2042 in 2021.

“There’s a chance, though, that DICE can do what it’s proven to do so well in the past, with Battlefield 4 and then Battlefront 2 which faced controversies of its own. In Battlefield 2042 there are enough moments of that old magic – matched by some smart if unrefined new ideas – to suggest that, with a bit of finessing and focus, it might yet have a promising future.”