Digital Arts is including Motive Studio, the staff behind Star Wars: Squadrons and the 2023 remake of Lifeless Area, to the roster of builders engaged on the following Battlefield sport. Byron Beede, common supervisor for the Battlefield franchise, and Patrick Klaus, common supervisor of Motive, announced the formation of a Battlefield-focused team at Motive on Tuesday — an announcement that additionally signaled the tip of seasonal content material for Battlefield 2042.
Motive will likely be one in all 4 studios engaged on the Battlefield franchise alongside DICE, Criterion, and Ripple Impact. EA just lately introduced the closure of Ridgeline Video games, a studio established in 2021 to work on narrative-focused Battlefield content material. Some staff at Ridgeline had been moved to Ripple Impact.
“We have now an bold imaginative and prescient to embrace and unlock the huge potential of the sequence’ class-based squadplay and immersive, intense battles,” Beede stated, noting that a number of EA-owned studios are creating “linked multiplayer experiences and single-player” content material set within the Battlefield franchise.
Battlefield 2042’s present and seventh season, Turning Level, will likely be its final, Beede confirmed. “After Season 7 concludes, we are going to proceed to assist the sport with new in-game challenges, occasions, modes, and naturally, ongoing upkeep, however we’re shifting away from delivering official seasons,” he stated. “We all know this information could also be disappointing. Nevertheless, as we checked out what the way forward for the sequence required, it turned clear it was time for us to shift our sources and focus to be totally devoted to what comes subsequent.”
The Motive staff engaged on Battlefield will likely be led by Philippe Ducharme and Roman Campos-Oriola, administrators of the Lifeless Area remake, Klaus said.
Klaus famous Motive’s beforehand introduced Iron Man undertaking will proceed, led by Olivier Proulx and Ian Frazier. “Iron Man is a vital precedence for Motive, and I’m very happy with the work we’ve completed up to now,” Klaus stated. The untitled Iron Man sport was revealed in 2022 as “an all-new single-player, third-person, action-adventure.” EA can be working with Marvel on a Black Panther sport.
The formation of a Battlefield-focused staff inside Motive brings the way forward for the just lately revived Lifeless Area franchise into query. Polygon reached out to EA for clarification on what Tuesday’s announcement means for Lifeless Area, however a spokesperson referred us again to Beede and Klaus’ statements. EA has not introduced any extra titles in growth at Motive, together with a possible remake of Lifeless Area 2.
Digital Arts stated in 2021, shortly after the launch of Battlefield 2042, that it was handing the reins of the Battlefield franchise to Vince Zampella, co-founder of Apex Legends and Titanfall developer Respawn Leisure. A couple of months later, EA CEO Andrew Wilson described the change as a part of “rethinking the [Battlefield] growth course of from the bottom up” and a plan to construct a “linked Battlefield universe.”