After the launch of Battlefield 2042, there are profound changes behind the scenes at Electronic Arts. DICE GM Oskar Gabrielson is leaving the developer after more than ten years, making way for Vince Zampella – who has already given insight into what the future of Battlefield might look like.
Who is leaving? Oskar Gabrielson served for years as General Manager at Battlefield developer DICE. “My last decade with the EA DICE team has been simply incredible. There are just so many great memories of working with our teams. But I have now made one of the hardest decisions of my life, to leave DICE and Electronic Arts,” Gabrielson wrote on Twitter about his departure.
“DICE has some of the best talent in the industry, and the team is in good hands. I will be here for the next few months to support the transition before I dive into my new adventure. I can promise you all that you can look forward to a lot on the battlefield [Battlefield],” he continued (via Twitter).
Gabrielson will be directly replaced by Rebecka Coutaz, who now takes over as GM at DICE. At the same time, another name is being discussed with Vince Zampella – who is supposed to become the new boss in terms of Battlefield.
Who is the successor for Battlefield? According to the portal GameSpot, Vince Zampella is now taking on a leading role in the Battlefield franchise. Zampella is one of the co-founders of Respawn Entertainment and is, among other things, responsible for the recently discontinued Titanfall and Battle Royale Apex Legends, which has become a real money-maker for EA.
Apex Legends was considered one of the financial pillars for EA in the past business quarter alongside EA sports titles like FIFA, and has reportedly generated over $1.6 billion since its inception (via dotesports). Seasons 9 and 10 are said to have had the most active players since Season 1.
Battlefield Future with ‘Connected Universe’?
This is planned for Battlefield: Zampella is to take on a bigger role in the Battlefield franchise, but that’s not all: A whole series of employees will be involved in the work on Battlefield. This includes:
- DICE
- Ripple Effect – the developers of the “Portal mode” in Battlefield 2042. They are supposed to create a “new experience” in the Battlefield 2042 universe.
- The currently unnamed development team of Marcus Lehto from Seattle. Lehto became known as the creative mind behind the Halo series and is supposed to provide more storytelling for Battlefield.
Zampella emphasized to GameSpot that it is not about replacing the newly released Battlefield 2042, but about expanding the Battlefield universe:
This is an ‘and’ strategy in many respects. We will continue to evolve and grow Battlefield 2042, and we will explore new types of experiences and business models that we can add to this foundation to provide our players with a great selection of experiences. In this universe, the world is interconnected through shared characters and stories. This universe will also be built with our community by leveraging the power of Portal and user-generated content that puts the creativity of our players in their hands.
Vince Zampella to GameSpot (via GameSpot.com)
Various projects are to be developed that are interconnected, but always keep the player at the center. Zampella is still largely withholding specific statements about what kind of projects it could be, but he emphasizes that the upcoming Battlefield Mobile in 2022 is supposed to play a role here.
Meanwhile, the new update 3 has just gone live for Battlefield 2042, which aims to address further issues after the rocky start. However, some players are still not satisfied with the improvements of the patch.
