DICE LA is back on Battlefield, a year after making plans to break from the series

When he assumed leadership of DICE's LA studio last year, Respawn boss Vince Zampella had big plans in mind. The support studio would be working on new, original games, outside the shadow cast by DICE's Stockholm office. That might all still be true someday—but for the time being, it looks like DICE LA is back onboard Battlefield.

That news comes courtesy of some cryptic tweets on the part of DICE LA senior design director Justin Wiebe, asking followers to guess what EA franchise he's "thrilled to be working on now". One by one, he checked off various properties—no prizes for guessing where the thread ended up.

"It’s wondrous I get to work on a game I fell in love with almost 20 years ago," Wiebe remarked in a follow-up tweet. "The sandbox play of 1942 was just amazing for its time. I look forward to hearing from all of you what you loved and hope for in a future BF game."

DICE LA has a long history in supporting the series, contributing to Battlefields 1, 5, and Hardline as an expansion of DICE's Swedish office. But Zampella's arrival seemed to herald an overhaul for the studio, one that would've seen a clean break from the DICE branding.

"We will probably rebrand," Zampella said at the time. "We want to give it a new image. We want people to say, 'This is a destination you can go and make new content.' I think they’ve kind of gotten the branding that they are the support studio for DICE Stockholm. I think rebranding is important for showing people, 'Hey! Come work here. We’re going to do some amazing things'."

Considering that statement was made just before Covid-19 brought everything to a standstill, there's still every chance that change is in the cards. But for the time being, DICE LA's next release is probably whatever Battlefield game EA plans to reveal this Spring.

20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.