Electronic Arts adds Motive Studio, the team behind it Star Wars: Squadrons and the 2023 remake of Empty space, to the list of developers working on the next Battlefield game. Byron Beede, General Manager of the Battlefield Franchise, and Patrick Klaus, General Manager of Motive, announced the formation of a Battlefield-focused team at Motive on Tuesday – an announcement that also marked the end of the season’s content Battlefield 2042.
Motive will be one of four studios working on the Battlefield franchise alongside DICE, Criterion and Ripple Effect. EA recently announced the closure of Ridgeline Games, a studio founded in 2021 to work on story-focused Battlefield content. Some employees at Ridgeline were transferred to Ripple Effect.
“We have an ambitious vision to embrace and unlock the enormous potential of the series’ class-based squad play and immersive, intense combat,” Beede said, noting that multiple EA studios are “connecting multiplayer experiences and single-player developing content”. Set in the Battlefield franchise.
Battlefield 2042The series’ current and seventh season, Turning Point, will be its last, Beede confirmed. “After Season 7 ends, we will continue to support the game with new in-game challenges, events, modes and of course ongoing maintenance, but we are moving away from delivering official seasons,” he said. “We know this news may be disappointing. However, when we looked at what the future of the series required, it became clear that it was time to shift our resources and focus and fully dedicate ourselves to what comes next.”
The Motive team working on Battlefield will be led by Philippe Ducharme and Roman Campos-Oriola, directors of the Empty space remake, Klaus said.
Klaus noted that Motive’s previously announced Iron Man project will continue, led by Olivier Proulx and Ian Frazier. “Iron Man is a key priority for Motive, and I am very proud of the work we have done so far,” said Klaus. The untitled Iron Man game was revealed in 2022 as “an all-new single-player, third-person action adventure.” EA is also working with Marvel on a Black Panther game.
The formation of a Battlefield-focused team within Motive puts the future of the recently revived Dead Space franchise in doubt. Polygon reached out to EA for clarification on what Tuesday’s announcement means for Dead Space, but a spokesperson referred us back to Beede and Klaus’ statements. EA has not announced any additional titles in development at Motive, including a possible remake of Dead space 2.
Electronic Arts said in 2021, shortly after the launch of Battlefield 2042that it handed over the reins of the Battlefield franchise to Vince Zampella, co-founder of Apex Legends and Titanfall developer Respawn Entertainment. A few months later, EA CEO Andrew Wilson described the change as part of “rethinking the (Battlefield) development process from the ground up” and a plan to build a “connected Battlefield universe.”