Halo co-creator slams EA for leaving Ridgeline Games devs out of Battlefield 6 credits

The co-creator of the Halo franchise and former art director on the original Halo games at Bungie, Marcus Lehto, publicly expressed disappointment over the lack of proper credits for himself and several colleagues from the now-defunct Ridgeline Games in the recent release of Battlefield 6.

In a LinkedIn post on October 20, Lehto mentioned that many team members who contributed to the game’s early development were either omitted or relegated to a brief “Special Thanks” section at the end, despite playing a major role in laying the game’s foundation. 

In the LinkedIn post, Lehto stated, “I’m disappointed to see that many of my former teammates from Ridgeline Games were not properly credited in the recent release of Battlefield 6.”

He initially pointed out that five individuals were missing from the credits section, including software engineers Jessica Moore and Dan Carr, lead tech artist Rohan Knuckey, and lead character artist Andres Naranjo. He later corrected himself and clarified that three of them were actually credited elsewhere in the game.

To honor their contributions, Lehto shared a custom image listing dozens of names and roles across cinematics, design, art, animation, engineering, and production, presenting it as how he believed the credentials should have appeared in Battlefield 6. He concluded in the post, “Game development is a team effort, and every contributor deserves fair acknowledgment.”

EA established Ridgeline Games in Seattle back in October 2021 and appointed Lehto as game director to lead the studio on FPS titles, specifically the campaign for the next Battlefield game.

The studio began hiring developers in July 2022 and collaborated with Ripple Effect, formerly DICE LA, to build the game’s narrative of what would later become Battlefield 6. Lehto left EA in February 2024 of his own accord, stating he wanted to take time away from the industry to think about his future.

Just a week later, EA shut down Ridgeline Games as part of a broader restructuring and laid off approximately 670 employees, and shifted away from future licensed IPs, with some staff relocated to Ripple Effect to continue work on Battlefield 6’s multiplayer development.

At the time, Lehto stated that he was “incredibly upset and very sad” about the closure and layoffs, further adding that he had “nothing positive to say about EA” following his departure.

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