Halo Co-Creator Marcus Lehto Confirms He Left EA By Choice, Will Be “Taking Time Away From Games” For Now

Marcus Lehto, one of the ‘fathers’ of Xbox’s flagship Halo franchise joined EA back in 2021 to help develop a brand new FPS game at their Seattle-based studio called Ridgeline Games.Since then we’ve heard almost nothing about what that game would be, and the team that Lehto was building, beyond that it would be a single-player narrative within the world of Battlefield.On Tuesday, Lehto confirmed what eagle-eyed internet sleuths had deduced from a change to Lehto’s Twitter profile and LinkedIn, that he had indeed left Ridgeline Games and EA.“Yes, I left EA on my own accord.” Lehto began in a social media post on Twitter, responding to the reports around his departure.“This was a very tough decision for me to make. I want to thank the Battlefield community for allowing me to listen to you when I was able. Your feedback will help make Battlefield stronger. I wish the teams at EA all the best moving forward.”Yes, I left EA on my own accord.This was very a tough decision for me to make.I want to thank the Battlefield community for allowing me to listen to you while I was able. Your feedback will help make Battlefield stronger.I wish the teams at EA all the best moving forward.— Marcus Lehto 🇺🇦 (@game_fabricator) February 27, 2024In a follow-up tweet, Lehto outlined that he doesn’t have an immediate next step to reveal, and instead “will be taking time away from games to see what, if anything, I want to do next.”From the way that sounds, this could potentially be Lehto’s final goodbye to an industry he’s had a major role in for years. It could also just be that Lehto is going to take some time to re-focus before coming back to games.Following his time at Bungie working on the original Halo games, Lehto was the president and creative director at V1 Interactive, which released its first and last game in Disintegration, a live-service title that was shut down in less than half a year after it launched.Disintegration’s shutdown also meant the shuttering of V1 Interactive, and shortly after that Lehto was hired by EA to lead Ridgeline Games. It’s unclear what Lehto’s departure will mean for Ridgeline, and the narrative Battlefield game the team was working on.Source – [Marcus Lehto on Twitter]



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