EA's Chief Design Officer Patrick Söderlund has made the decision to leave the giant game company after 12 years of working with them. If you had no idea who he is, he is the man who was CEO of DICE that overlooked and created the Battlefield franchise.
With Patrick's departure, there would be no doubt that such a high position would be difficult to fill. Though there was no reason given for his departure, the statement by EA seemed to infer that they all left on good terms. The result of his departure would have a few teams shuffling in their roles to ensure that operations will remain smooth.
The Swedish man was credited for his vision of the Frosbite engine that was developed by EA DICE. EA CEO Andrew Wilson credited him as one of the visionaries that placed the technology as one of EA's cornerstones for many games moving forward. Patrick was also credited for pushing through several games that were put in the pipeline for production.
Patrick may have announced his departure, but it won't be immediate as he would take roughly three months to transition the role and help many other executives such as Laura Miele and Chriss Bruzzo to maintain their work with the many studios going forward.
EA has shuffled a few people to fill some of the gaps that will be left by Patrick's departure. Jason Wozencroft will be looking to help EA's studios with UX game, he had huge experiences and should fit right in as he had worked with EA for a number of years in the past.
Johan Andersson is a game designer veteran who worked for Paradox Development Studio. His repertoire included several strategy games such as Hearts of Iron 3 and Crusader Kings 2. With his huge experience, EA has managed to recruit a major creator to their company.
Finally, Rob Letts will be moved to lead strategic growth as his long line of experience in executive producing should help. His resume includes Titanfall series and Crysis series, both fairly respectable games. Letts will be placed in the Strategic Growth group where they will work with EA Originals and EA Partners for the many future games.
With Patrick's leaving of the studio, there is some interest in where EA's games in the future may head. He had no doubt been such a major part that would influence a lot of EA's games in the near future. You can read EA's full statement here.
