Back in October 2021, following the shuttering of his own independent studio, Halo co-creator, Marcus Lehto, joined EA to form a brand new studio. As it turns out, the newly created EA Seattle studio will primarily be focusing on Battlefield, looking to provide new single-player, or potentially co-op enabled campaigns.
Battlefield used to be well known for its campaigns, but after Battlefield 4, EA began to sour on the idea of single-player games. Rather than creating a big narrative arc with set-piece moments, DICE began to chip away at the single-player side of Battlefield, leading to smaller, episodic campaigns that were more like tutorial missions for different map scenarios, rather than something grand and cinematic like Bad Company. After that, more resources were pushed to the multiplayer side, but as we've seen with Battlefield 2042 recently, putting all of your eggs in one basket can lead to disastrous results.
At the new Seattle studio, led by Halo co-creator, Marcus Lehto, EA will be looking to build “rich, exciting stories with memorable characters and powerful experiences all in the Battlefield universe”, according to a recent job listing. The job specifically calls for a design director, who will be responsible for mission and narrative design, mechanics and other in-game systems.
Nothing has been announced yet, but DICE does apparently have a three-year plan to save the Battlefield franchise. Bringing back cinematic, well-polished campaigns could be a good step towards that goal. For now though, DICE maintains that its only focus right now is Battlefield 2042, so whatever this new Seattle studio has planned, it is likely still a few years away.
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KitGuru Says: Perhaps we can finally get the Bad Company sequel that fans have been asking for over the last decade, rather than another semi-futuristic, or World War era shooter.