Patrick Liu, Senior Producer at DICE who most recently worked on Battlefield 3, has left DICE to work for Angry Birds developer Rovio as Creative Director of their Stockholm studio. He had held his position at DICE for over five years, previously working over at Starbreeze on such games as The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena and The Darkness.
This news comes only weeks after the departure of Lead Gameplay Designer for Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 3, Daniel Goldfarb, who, funnily enough, left to go work at Starbreeze.
Liu tweeted earlier this morning about the move, saying that Rovio “feels awesome” and that he was “looking forward to new and exciting challenges. Say what you will about Angry Birds, it’s a solid game, and Rovio has yet to do anything overtly evil as far as I can tell. Hopefully the aid of an industry vet like Liu will help them finally put those casual game billions into making something with a little more hardcore appeal. After working under EA, I imagine just about anywhere to be a step up.
The departure of two senior staff members might be a sign for worry for some Battlefield fans, what with Battlefield 4 planned for release by 2014, but ultimately I doubt it will matter much. Best case scenario some new blood steps in to try and bring some fresh ideas for the sequel, worst case they take the Modern Warfare route, throw new maps and a new weapon or two into Battlefield 3 and call it a new game.
Could be good news for both Rovio and Starbreeze.
Syndicate was a waste of time, and the shooting was heavily flawed. Maybe we could get some Battlefield fine-tuning while the RPG/strategy elements are improved?
And then Rovio. Having a Senior Producer from another studio on their side could help them if they every decide to try, say, side-scrolling rail shooters.
is he going to put an insane blue tint post processing filter over angry birds?
as much as i hate post processing i would most likely play that