A Halo co-creator who was working on the next Battlefield has seemingly left the franchise and EA

Battlefield 2042 season 6 — (Image credit: EA)

As reported by Insider Gaming and first spotted by Battlefield YouTuber DannyonPC, FPS veteran and Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto appears to have left his director position at Ridgeline Games, an EA subsidiary, where he was working on the next Battlefield game.

As art director on the first three Halo games, Lehto had a massive impact on the sci-fi series' iconic look. Lehto was then creative director on the latter Halo games made by Bungie and part of the original Destiny team before departing the company. Lehto founded studio V1 in 2014, which struggled to find an audience for its experimental hoverbike FPS-RTS, Disintegration, before shutting down in 2021.

It seemed like a good fit, with Lehto applying his expertise in FPS campaigns to revive the single player element of the historically multiplayer-focused series. Battlefield's most recent entry, the once-maligned, now-redeemed 2042, did not have a single player campaign.

As for what Lehto's departure means for Battlefield, a leadership shakeup like this is never an encouraging sign, while DannyonPC also notes that Ridgeline's art director, Chris Matthews, left the company for Halo steward 343 Industries in January.

Ted has been thinking about PC games and bothering anyone who would listen with his thoughts on them ever since he booted up his sister's copy of Neverwinter Nights on the family computer. He is obsessed with all things CRPG and CRPG-adjacent, but has also covered esports, modding, and rare game collecting. When he's not playing or writing about games, you can find Ted lifting weights on his back porch. You can follow Ted on Bluesky.