Dead Space remake devs EA Motive are building a team to work on future Battlefield projects
Alongside their Iron Man game
The Battlefield series increasingly seems like a square peg held by a publisher that only owns round holes. Created by EA Dice, overseen now by Respawn CEO Vince Zampella, recently worked on by EA's founded-and-shuttered Ridgeline Studios, and now EA Motive are the latest to be stuck with the beleaguered milsim.
In an update announcing that seasonal updates for Battlefield 2042 were drawing to an end, EA say that Motive Studio - best known for the Dead Space remake - are "building a team focused on Battlefield at their studio."
Battlefield 2042 was released with an initial plan for four post-launch seasons, but has ended up with seven, the last of which is ongoing. "It is now necessary for us to turn from the present to the future," writes Byron Beede, general manager of Battlefield, in the announcement.
"To that end, Motive Studio – the talented developers known most recently for their work on the critically acclaimed remake of Dead Space and Star Wars: Squadrons – are building a team focused on Battlefield at their studio. We’re tremendously excited for Motive, as they are bringing their expertise with Frostbite and compelling storytelling to the fold, joining DICE, Criterion, and Ripple Effect in building a Battlefield universe across connected multiplayer experiences and single-player," writes Beede.
Motive Studio's own announcement makes clear that the studio are continuing to work on their Iron Man game.
Motive have previously seemed like something of a square peg themselves, at one point working for years on a cancelled project called "Gaia", at another assigned to work with EA's Visceral on Amy Hennig's ill-fated Star Wars game, Project Ragtag. Star Wars Squadrons seems like an overlooked gem, though.
I used to love Battlefield, from 1942 through 2, 3 and both Bad Companies. Each of those games offered an experience no other shooter did. The scale of fights was part of that, but only part, and while I'm sure "scale" remains on an executive's pitch deck somewhere, I'm less certain the rest of what I enjoyed can ever return when the expectation of Battlefield is that it should make as much money as Call Of Duty.