Ripple Effect boss: "We have to embrace the fact that some people will be fully remote."
Electronic Arts is still being coy about what its next Battlefield game will look like (a question of interest to players, developers, and investors frustrated by the performance of Battlefield 2042), but whatever the future holds, it will rely on the work of Los Angeles-based subsidiary Ripple Effect Studios (formerly known as DICE LA).
Under its old moniker, Ripple Effect served as a support studio for main Battlefield developer DICE. In 2021, the company took on its new name and was tapped by EA to be part of a three-studio strategy to expand the Battlefield series under the leadership of Respawn Entertainment and Infinity Ward co-founder Vince Zampella.
Such a transition takes a lot of work for any company, and this one has required the studio to evolve to the realities of remote work. According to studio general manager Christian Grass, adapting to those challenges has left him more excited than ever for the "creative and strategic" future of the franchise.
Grass' comments came during a chat about the company's transition from support studio to frontline development on the Battlefield series—a move that Grass says the studio was better prepared for thanks to the relative independence it needed to support a studio 5,000 miles away.
Ripple Effect is breaking away from other major game studios by not mandating a return-to-office policy for its employees (Riot Games implemented a 1-3-1 policy, and Activision Blizzard almost mandated a companywide RTO policy before acquiescing to employee demands for flexibility at some offices).
Grass didn't mention any lingering concerns about health and safety while COVID-19 is still spreading, but he seemed more ready to admit that the pandemic has reshaped where and how developers
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