Just last month we wrote about Battlefield’s lead designer David Goldfarb leaving DICE to work at Starbreeze on their adaptation of Overkill’s Payday: The Heist. Now we’ve learned that senior producer Patrick Liu has departed for pastures fowl, taking up the role of creative director at Rovio, the makers of Angry Bird’s.
Should we be worried for DICE’s future?
Well, probably not, no.
This isn’t a sign of people jumping from a burning ship. We’d need a few more bodies in the metaphorical ocean before we can start crying out in despair. The fact is people move on once projects are nearing an end because that’s the cleanest time to make a break. So whilst there are still three more DLC packs due for Battlefield 3, a large part of the work on them will already be done, at least the planning will be in place. It’s for the same reasons we weren’t to be worried when the producer andlead artist left their roles at Irrational earlier this month..
Liu has likely taken a clean opportunity to break from DICE before work on Battlefield 4 begins in earnest.