Marcus Lehto is no longer working at Ridgeline Games, the studio that Electronic Arts created in 2021 to focus on a new Battlefield narrative campaign following the initial lackluster response to Battlefield 2042. Fans on the Battlefield 2042 subreddit were the first to notice that Lehto recently changed his Twitter biography.
Lehto's Twitter bio used to read "Game Director @Battlefield Narrative @EA" before continuing on to mention how he co-created Halo, created Disintegration, and is the "Father of Master Chief." His current bio was updated to remove all mention of Battlefield and EA.
Further confirmation of Lehto's quiet departure was discovered through his LinkedIn account. It shows that Lehto left EA in February 2024. Lehto's Facebook was also updated with a "Left Job at EA - Electronic Arts" life event change.
What isn't known is whether Lehto left on his own, if Electronic Arts fired him/laid him off, or if Ridgeline Games itself is even operational still. EA's official website lists no open vacancies for Ridgeline Games.
Ridgeline Game's co-founder, Chris Matthews, may have also recently left the studio. According to his LinkedIn page, Matthews has been working full-time at 343 Industries since January 2024, but does still also list Electronic Arts as a current job. It's tough to imagine that Matthews is working full-time at both studios at the same time though.
Prior to these departures, Lehto was usually quite busy on social media. Lehto often talked with Battlefield fans and asked what fans would most like to see return from past Battlefield titles. He asked what about map destruction fans enjoyed, favorite style of Battlefield music, inquired about jet and helicopter feedback, and more.
Lehto, Matthews, and the team at Ridgeline Games were in charge of "developing a narrative campaign set in the Battlefield universe." With today's news, we have no idea what the future of the Battlefield franchise may look like. The last we heard about anything related to future Battlefield narratives or campaigns came in February 2023, when EA announced that they were expanding DICE with a new team to support Ridgeline's narrative efforts.
Lehto's currently pinned Twitter post is from February 1st of this year. In the post, Lehto expressed his gratitude to the Ridgeline Games' team and shared a picture of the entire crew having lunch together.
