EA has once again added to its ever-expanding list of new studios, opening another new studio in Seattle with Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto in charge. Lehto announced that he would be joining EA on his personal Twitter account earlier today, explaining that the publisher is opening a new studio in Seattle to work on "first-person games."
Considering Lehto's experience working as an Art Director on Halo, Halo 2, and Halo 3, it's safe to assume that EA has a first-person shooter in the works over in Seattle. EA's new studio hasn't been named just yet, but it's likely we'll hear an announcement closer to when this studio is ready to show off what it's working on.
There's also the possibility that Lehto's new studio could be working with one of EA's already established IPs rather than something original. The publisher has a number of fairly popular FPS franchises in its vault, including Medal of Honor, Battlefield, Titanfall, and Star Wars Battlefront. It's also possible that EA could use this new studio to revive an older IP such as Black or Syndicate.
Lehto's studio isn't the only one EA has opened in Seattle this year, having already opened another studio back in May which is being headed by former Monolith VP Kevin Stephens. This studio is also unnamed at the time of writing but has been tasked with creating an open-world action-adventure game - unsurprising when you consider Stephens' experience working on other open-world titles such as Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor and its sequel.
Combine these two new studios being led by experienced developers alongside EA's recent acquisition of Codemasters and it's clear to see that the publisher is ramping up the number of games it plans to publish on a yearly basis. Big things could be coming from EA, but only time will tell if it plays out as the publisher wants.
As for EA's next big release, the launch of Battlefield 2042 is just around the corner, although fans aren't too impressed with the game's beta at the moment. Battlefield 2042 is expected to launch on November 19 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.