One of the creators of the Halo franchise is leading development on a new FPS game from EA.
Marcus Lehto, who helped create the Halo franchise and worked as art director on Halo, Halo 2, and Halo 3, will lead a new studio to be based in Seattle. In a post on LinkedIn (via GI.biz), Lehto said that he was "very excited to announce that I've joined Electronic Arts as a game director, building a new studio [...] working on first-person games."
GamesIndustry.biz states that Lehto's studio will report to Vince Zampella, head of Apex Legends and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order developer Respawn Entertainment, as well as of DICE EA. There's no word on what the new team could be working on - the attachment to Apex Legends via Respawn and Battlefield via DICE could be a hint of what's to come, but whatever's coming up, the team's first game is likely to be a long way off yet.
While his time at Bungie - which saw him work as the studio's creative director - was undoubtedly successful, Lehto's most recent project didn't live up to those same heights. In 2019, his studio V1 Interactive unveiled Disintegration, a hoverbike-based sci-fi shooter that "struggled to build a significant audience," resulting in the game's multiplayer servers shutting down just five months after the game launched, and the studio following suit in March 2021.
Last month, Lehto hinted at his return to development, telling his Twitter followers that he would be "making some pretty big decisions with his career," and that while "some of you will support it, some will not." What exactly some players may not support is an interesting point of speculation; Lehto could be referring to a significant departure from the Halo series that helped establish his career, or EA's relative lack of popularity with players, but it could be a long time until we find out.
Lehto's time at Bungie helped shape some of the titles on our list of best FPS games.
