A series of tweets from Oskar Gabrielson announce his departure from DICE, where he had served as General Manager. He does not get into why he's departing, focusing instead on looking back at his work on the Battlefield series. He says leaving DICE and Electronic Arts is one of the hardest decisions of his life. This does, however, come following the poorly received launch of Battlefield 2042. Thus Gabrielson's departure is part of what GameSpot calls a "major shake-up" of the long-running military shooter series. Among the details they reveal are plans for Vince Zampella to take command of the series, for Marcus Lehto (Halo designer) to start a new studio in Seattle to work along with Ripple Effect and DICE to develop "a new Battlefield experience in the Battlefield 2042 universe." Some of what's planned will result in a universe where "the world is interconnected with shared characters and narrative." Here's a bit from the lengthy post:

Additionally, DICE GM Oskar Gabrielson is leaving the company to pursue a new endeavor outside of EA. The shake-up also includes Respawn's Vince Zampella taking on a bigger role as the new overall boss of the Battlefield franchise, while Halo designer Marcus Lehto is building a new development team in Seattle focused on injecting more storytelling into the Battlefield universe. Ripple Effect, the developer of Battlefield 2042's Portal mode, is developing a new Battlefield experience in the Battlefield 2042 universe.

In the immediate future, EA told GameSpot that DICE, Ripple Effect, and Lehto's new Seattle studio will work together to expand upon and improve Battlefield 2042. The other Battlefield games and experiences in the works are meant to serve as extensions, to a degree, of the new Battlefield universe that EA is trying to create. There are no specifics available about the new games and experiences that EA intends to create or when they will release, as of yet.

As for Lehto, the man who designed Master Chief and played a major role in making Halo what it is today, he is heading up a new, unnamed studio in the Seattle area. It will collaborate with DICE and Ripple Effect with the aim of expanding the narrative, storytelling, and character development opportunities in the Battlefield series. There is no word yet on what this means in terms of specific products or strategies, however.

In a big shift, Battlefield 2042 did not have a single-player mode, instead opting to focus on three main multiplayer pillars: All-Out Warfare, Portal, and Hazard Zone. Lehto previously started an independent studio called V1 Interactive that made a sci-fi shooter called Disintegration. The game failed to find an audience, and V1 closed its doors. Lehto was hired by EA earlier this year, but it isn't until today that we're learning what he's working on.

Byron Beede, the longtime Call of Duty veteran who EA hired earlier this year to grow the Battlefield series as the shepherd of its long-term strategy and business decisions, said Lehto and his team in Seattle will expand Battlefield 2042's narrative across a "variety of experiences." These will lay the foundation for "storytelling opportunities now and well into the future," Beede teased. Whatever Lehto's team creates, it will show up in "later seasons" for Battlefield 2042 and "beyond."