One of the creators of the Halo franchise, Marcus Lehto, has joined EA as the game director for an as of now untitled first-person shooter game. Lehto, who has also been dubbed “the father of the Master Chief” for his role in the creation of the iconic series for developer Bungie, will build a new EA office based out of the Seattle area.
Lehto first shared news of this over Twitter, in a post bearing the EA logo. According to his tweet, the studio will have a focus on First-Person Shooter games, though it is unclear if they will be new IPs or existing ones that EA has the rights to. That can also be said about the game he has announced that his new studio is working on now.
Hey everyone, I’m very excited to announce that I’ve joined @EA as a Game Director, building a new studio in the Seattle area working on first-person games. I can’t wait to share more about what we’re creating! pic.twitter.com/GnfVFNLSaW
— Marcus Lehto 🇺🇦 (@game_fabricator) October 19, 2021
Since he was previously involved in the conception of one of the most beloved FPS series of all time, I would hope EA plans to give him and his team the creative freedom to make the kind of project they want to. That being said, I would not say no to Titanafall 3 either if that is the way this ends up going. Regardless, he seems happy with his situation, ending his tweet by saying “I can’t wait to share more about what we’re creating!”
Lehto is most well known for being the Creative Art Director for Bungie, starting from 1997 through to 2012. As his nickname might imply, during that time he was responsible for the creation of Master Chief, who has remained an iconic character in the video game industry to this day. He would work on all of Bungie’s Halo games before leaving to start his own studio V1 Interactive which created the RTS/FPS hybrid known as Disintegration which proved to be critically unsuccessful.
Hopefully, with EA backing him, Lehto can find his footing yet again and recapture some of the magic of his earlier career.
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