Battlefield 2042 lead designer departs EA DICE

Battlefield 2042's head of design is reportedly exiting developer EA DICE.

As reported by VGC yesterday, Fawzi Mesmar, head of design at EA DICE for both the Battlefield and Star Wars Battlefront franchises, has left the developer. However, the report claims this wasn't a sudden decision from Mesmar, as he had been planning to leave the studio "for some time" once Battlefield 2042 shipped earlier this month.

Mesmar has served as EA DICE's head of design for both shooter franchises since since 2019, where he oversaw groups of developers totalling north of 80 personnel. Before this however, Mesmar was a studio director at King, the mobile developer famed primarily for making Candy Crush.

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Internal emails seen by VGC also reveal that a succession plan for Mesmar at EA DICE has been in discussion for quite some time. "While Oskar [Gabrielson, studio GM] and myself have been discussing my succession plans for some time – and it will be announced in due course – we opted to delay this communication till after launch to keep the focus – rightfully so – on the game we’ve been putting a monumental amount of effort on," an email from Mesmar reveals.

Battlefield 2042 launched in early access this month on November 12, and saw a general release a week later across PC and two console generations. It hasn't been smooth sailing for EA DICE however, as the new shooter is one of Steam's most poorly reviewed games ever, but in response, the developer has immediately prepared two significant updates for Battlefield 2042, one of which launches today on November 25, aimed at tackling weapon accuracy among other issues.