Respawn co-founder Vince Zampella is getting a bigger role within DICE and will now become the overall head of the Battlefield franchise. According to Gamespot, the shake around has come after their Vice President and General Manager Oskar Gabrielson decided he will be leaving DICE and EA for a “new adventure”. One of the things he aims to do is to create a “connected Battlefield Universe” with multiple interconnected projects.
Battlefield 2042 will “continue to evolve and grow” as part of this new connected universe. In the long term, Ripple Effect, the studio behind the Battlefield Portal, is currently working on a new experience within the 2042 universe. Halo designer Marcus Lehto is also putting together a new development team in Seattle to focus on narrative, storytelling, and character development within the Battlefield universe, especially after 2042 garnered a lot of criticism for launching without a campaign. For now, both teams will work on expanding upon Battlefield 2042 with content that isn’t expected to appear until the game’s later seasons. Meanwhile, the game’s latest patch arrived today, adding new Portal features and a plethora of bug fixes and other improvements.
Details on the universe and its new projects are scarce for now, but Zampella did explain a little more:
We intend to build a Battlefield universe, one with multiple projects that are interconnected with the player at the center. We plan to grow Battlefield and meet players where they play through various experiences and business models, including our upcoming Battlefield Mobile coming in 2022 from Alex Seropian and Industrial Toys.
In this universe, the world is interconnected with shared characters and narrative. This universe is also built with our community as we harness the power of Portal and user generated content that puts creativity in the hands of our players.
The new universe fits into the idea that everyone “should think about Battlefield as a service“, something Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson told investors back in August. The aim then was to release a new Battlefield game every two years and it remains to be seen if the new universe still fits into that ideal.
