Former Bungie longtimer March Lehto, the art director on the original Halo games among others, launched a new studio at Electronic Arts in 2021 called Ridgeline Games, with the express purpose of developing a "narrative campaign" for the next Battlefield game—the recently-released Battlefield 6, as it turned out. Ah, but it didn't work out: A few years later he left EA, and shortly after that EA laid off the entire team and closed the studio.
Lehto said at the time that he was "incredibly upset and very sad" about the layoffs and closure, adding that he didn't "have anything positive to say about EA" in the wake of his departure. And now, with Battlefield 6 out in the wild, EA has let him down even further.
"I’m disappointed to see that many of my former teammates from Ridgeline Games were not properly credited in the recent release of Battlefield 6," Lehto wrote on LinkedIn (via VGC).
"These talented developers worked tirelessly for one to 2.5 years, building the foundation of the game, before I left voluntarily and the studio was subsequently shuttered. Despite their significant contributions, most who were laid off were relegated to a 'Special Thanks' section at the very end of the credits—and several were omitted entirely, including myself."
Ironically, Lehto had previously appeared to hold no grudge about his obviously unhappy split with EA: In a separate message posted a week ago, when Battlefield 6 launched, he wrote, "Huge congratulations to all my colleagues involved around the globe in shipping this immense title! I know how much hard work went into it and wish you all the best."
Properly crediting people for their work is a big deal in an industry as volatile as game development: Given how likely it is that developers will bounce between multiple studios over the course of their careers, it's important to have a demonstrable record of past work.
It's also something the game industry seems to struggle with, which can also be attributed, at least partly, to the instability of the business: Some games have hundreds of people working on them over periods of several years, and it can be tough to stay on top of everyone. Even the famously developer-first Larian whiffed on credits for Baldur's Gate 3 a couple years ago.
With EA having dropped the ball, Lehto put together his own roll of Ridgeline developer credits, "listing their names and roles as I would have preferred them to appear in the credits. Game development is a team effort, and every contributor deserves fair acknowledgement." It won't appear in the game (unless EA opts to patch it in) but it's an important acknowledgement nonetheless.
I've reached out to EA for comment on the Battlefield 6 credits and will update if I receive a reply.
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