EA has announced a new studio and a "new campaign" being developed in the Battlefield universe. Ridgeline Games is the latest studio to join EA's roster of over 20 teams, and is headed by Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto."It is a great honor to have the opportunity to collaborate with DICE and Ripple Effect and lead the charge on expanding the narrative, storytelling, and character development opportunities in the Battlefield series," said Lehto, head of Ridgeline and game director on the coming campaign.Lehto is best known as the co-creator of Halo and the artist who created the legendary Spartan, Master Chief. After leaving Bungie, he went on to found V1 Interactive and make the RTS/FPS hybrid game Disintegration. Unfortunately, the game wasn't well received, and both V1 and Disintegration shut down less than a year after its release.
Last June, Lehto's name came up on an EA job listing as the head of a new "Battlefield Seattle" studio that was hiring for a new single-player Battlefield game. The ad took many by surprise considering how EA had very recently lambasted single-player games.
Ridgeline Games is currently "building a diverse studio where everyone’s voice is valued and where creating a strong work-life balance is a priority." No other information was provided about the new Battlefield campaign, and the press release even stopped short of calling it a new game. It's possible that this new campaign could be Battlefield 2042 DLC.
One of the many complaints leveled against Battlefield 2042 was its lack of a single player campaign, but that was largely overshadowed by numerous technical issues, missteps on new game modes, and falling player counts. In May, it was reported that EA doesn't consider Battlefield 2042 to be an active game, and recent financial reports called it a commercial failure.