Skip to main content

Single-player Battlefield content is coming from a new EA studio

Electronic Arts announced a new studio dedicated to developing single-player narrative campaigns for the Battlefield franchise. Located in Kirkland, Washington, the studio is called Ridgeline Games and is led by game director and Halo-co-creator Marcus Lehto.

“It is a great honor to have the opportunity to collaborate with DICE and Ripple Effect and lead the charge on expanding the narrative, storytelling, and character development opportunities in the Battlefield series,” says Lehto in a statement.

Vince Zampella, founder of Respawn Games and head of the Battlefield franchise adds, “We’re continuing to invest in the future of the franchise by bringing in new talent and perspectives … With Marcus and his team at Ridgeline Games joining the world-class global team we have already in place, Battlefield is in the strongest position to succeed.”

We're all in on the future of Battlefield! We're continuing to support #BF2042, and welcome our new studio, @RidgelineGames, who will be focusing on a narrative campaign.

Read more from GM Byron Beede 👇https://t.co/RHcHYe0opc pic.twitter.com/fO7eCHNDAB

— Battlefield (@Battlefield) September 8, 2022

The founding of Ridgeline Games is notable as the latest entry, Battlefield 2042, didn’t have a single-player campaign. Hopefully, this means that it returns as a staple component in future games. In general, Battlefield 2042 has struggled since its launch last year. In addition to being criticized for not having a campaign, support for some of the game’s multiplayer modes has been cut. It’s faced persistent bugs and been late in adding key features like scoreboards and voice chat.

On PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, the game’s Breakthrough mode allowed 128 players to simultaneously face each other in the same match. In May, however, the mode was permanently scaled back to only include half as many players.

Last year, Zampella also mentioned that EA is looking to expand the franchise and create a “connected Battlefield universe.”

George Yang
George Yang is a freelance games writer for Digital Trends. He has written for places such as IGN, GameSpot, The Washington…
A single-player Iron Man game is coming from the studio behind Dead Space
EA Motive's Iron Man game

Electronic Arts announced that it has partnered with Marvel to create a new Iron-Man game. It is being developed by EA Motive in Montreal and it will be a single-player, third-person, and action-adventure game.

Executive producer Olivier Proulx will be leading the development team on this new title, and he has worked on other past Marvel titles such as Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. Other notable names include Ian Frazier (Mass Effect: Andromeda, Star Wars Squadrons), Maëlenn Limineau (Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Need for Speed Hot Pursuit), and JF Poirier (Child of Light, Star Wars Battlefront II).

Read more
EA wants your help to test the next Skate game
Skate park in new Skate game.

Publisher Electronic Arts and developer Full Circle have released a new video for the upcoming Skate game, with early "pre-pre-alpha" footage. The developer assures fans it's still working on the highly anticipated game and is even requesting play testers to assist in the game's creation.

Still Working On It | skate.

Read more
Battlefield 2042 Season 1 is an improvement, but a late one
A specialist holds Battlefield 2042's new crossbow weapon.

Battlefield 2042's launch didn't go quite as planned for EA. While it was poised to be the publisher's next live service hit, it floundered at launch due to an overwhelming number of bugs, a controversial ability-driven specialist system, maps that felt way too big, and more. While Digital Trends' reviewer loved the base game, many players didn't, so EA spent months fixing it. As a result, Season 1: Zero Hour was pushed back all the way to June 9, over six months after the game's launch. Ahead of its release, I got the opportunity to try out some of Season 1's new content a see if Battlefield 2042 has really changed for the better. 
This primarily consisted of going hands-on with the new Specialist Ewelina Lis on the new map Exposure. Is Battlefield 2042 in a better state now than it was at launch? Yes. Will it make enough compelling additions and changes to bring you back if you're not a hardcore Battlefield fan? Not really. 
Battlefield 2042 | Season 1: Zero Hour Gameplay Trailer Premiere
What's new?
The main additions coming to Battlefield 2042 at the start of Season 1 are a new rocket launcher-wielding specialist named Ewelina Lis, a new map set in the Canadian Rockies called Exposure, new weapons including a crossbow and marksman rifle, and a battle pass containing lots of free and paid unlockables. It's definitely the meatiest batch of content Battlefield 2042 has received since launch, but it doesn't revamp or fix every core problem with the game. 

Starting with the battle pass, don't expect any wild crossover or crazy outfits, just a lot of new realistic looks for your specialists, vehicles, and weapons. It is challenge-based, which Halo has shown the downsides of, but thankfully 30 tiers of it are free and the only things unlocked by paying up are cosmetic. That means everyone will be able to try the new specialist Ewelina Lis. She is a helpful Engineer Specialist as she always has a rocket launcher at her disposal to help destroy vehicles.
While I found the new Ghostmaker R10 Crossbow and BSV-M Marksman Rifle to be too slow and not powerful enough to be very useful in a game with such a quick time to kill, Lis may be a useful specialist that will stick around on most squads. She's particularly useful on the brand-new map Exposure.
When previewing the new season, I got to try out both Conquest and Breakthrough on Exposure, a map that supports both 128-player and 64-player matches. As it takes place in and around a base built into the side of a mountain, it has one of the most distinctive and vertical layouts of any new Battlefield 2042 map. The tensest firefights took place in a spot nestled on the side of the mountain, as players could flank from within the mountain on foot or from the skies in new stealth helicopters. While I enjoyed those moments and attacking the base in the helicopter, it still felt a bit too big to traverse on foot outside of that base, a common problem with all of Battlefield 2042's maps. 

Read more