Publisher Electronic Arts has announced another round of layoffs and restructuring, as a consequence of which Respawn Entertainment’s Star Wars first-person shooter has been canceled. The company is also moving away from games based on licensed IP, choosing instead to focus on its own IP and sports franchises. As part of the restructuring process, Battlefield studio Ridgeline Games is also shutting down.
Respawn Entertainment’s Star Wars Jedi games are safe
In a press release, EA executive Laura Miele said that Respawn’s Star Wars FPS was in early development, and moving away from the project wasn’t an easy decision to make. However, the publisher determined that the Jedi series and “new projects based on our owned brands,” like Apex Legends, is the “right place to focus.”
As for Ridgeline Games, the recently-established developer was led by Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto. Interestingly, Lehto departed Ridgeline earlier this week but appears to have had no knowledge of EA’s plans. He tweeted that the news of Ridgeline’s closure as EA lays off nearly 700 employees is a “gut punch.”
Gut punched to see EA lay off my team. So many very talented devs who were incredibly valuable to the Battlefield franchise. https://t.co/N3lYSjeO6z— Marcus Lehto ?? (@game_fabricator) February 28, 2024
Ridgeline was working on the next Battlefield’s campaign. The game’s development is “making meaningful progress,” according to EA.
“It’s not lost on me that these changes are more than words on a page; they directly impact the work you do every day and, in some cases, mean we are eliminating roles and saying goodbye to talented colleagues,” Miele wrote. “I will never lose sight of the human impact of these decisions and know that change and disruption aren’t easy.”