EA’s Patrick Söderlund steps down

EA has announced its Chief Design Officer Patrick Söderlund will move on from the company later this year.

In an open letter titled “An update on our creative leadership,” EA CEO Andrew Wilson paid tribute to Söderlund ’s impact on the company over the past two decades:

“Patrick has been a trusted business partner and a great friend, and his inspiring leadership has had an outstanding impact on EA," Wilson wrote.  As an integral part of the management team for many years—including as head of Worldwide Studios and, most recently, Chief Design Officer—he’s been an agent of change and transformation.”

Formerly CEO of DICE, Söderlund  joined EA’s executive board after it acquisitioned the Swedish studio in 2006. He played a key role in the spread of DICE’s powerful Frostbite engine across the company, with it becoming the technological basis for games like Dragon Age: Inquisition and Mass Effect: Andromeda.

Wilson further stated that EA will undergo some reorganisation in preparation for Söderlund ’s departure. “The SEED team led by Johan Andersson will join our studios group to continue driving advanced design and innovation at the leading edge of games.” He added “with new games and content playing a vital role in our networked future, the EA Originals and EA Partners teams led by Rob Letts will join our Strategic Growth group.”

No information was offered regarding Söderlund's planned destination, but it undoubtedly represents a substantial loss for EA, given how integral DICE’s technology has become to the company as a whole. Wilson signed off by thanking Söderlund  for his contributions. “He will always be a part of our EA family.  And thank you all for leading us forward.”

Contributor

Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.

Latest in FPS
Starfield's companion robot giving a thumbs-up
Former Bethesda dev who quit Starfield to go solo says it's 'much less stressful as an indie' without daily meetings or 'office politics': it's 'very refreshing to just care about the game'
A crew of prospectors in Wildgate, featuring a robot, a rabbit man, and a small aquatic creature in a combination mech/aquarium.
Blizzard co-founder Mike Morhaime's new company is putting Sea of Thieves-style shenanigans in space with a new crew-based shooter
Team Fortress Spy being shocked
An FPS studio pulled its game from Steam after it got caught linking to malware disguised as a demo, but the dev insists it was actually the victim of a labyrinthine conspiracy
Neighbors Suburban Warfare screenshot a child aims a slingshot at a man from across a cul-de-sac.
A beta of backyard FPS Neighbors: Suburban Warfare is out now, and the balance discussion is hysterical: nerf trash can lids and children
Fragpunk
Somebody finally figured out casual Counter-Strike
Image for
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide’s getting a new roguelite wave defense mode that sounds a whole lot like a souped-up take on Killing Floor
Latest in News
A female Zoi making two hearts with her fingers.
Following 24 hours of Denuvo-based backlash, Inzoi is taking a surprising step and removing it entirely: 'We want to sincerely apologise for not aligning more closely with player expectations'
An image of a Helldiver from Helldivers 2 shooting at a red dragon from Dungeons & Dragons.
'Ok, so dragon builds are a thing now': galaxy-brained Helldivers 2 player incinerates a bile titan with a hover pack and a flamethrower
An ancient, angry stone mech from No Man's Sky's new Relics update
No Man’s Sky lets you unearth ancient, angry mechs in the astro-archaeology filled Relics update
Assassin's Creed Shadows promo image
Ubisoft scores a legendary ratio against Elon Musk on his own platform—which hopefully marks a final end to all the Assassin's Creed Shadows' culture war nonsense
Tzarina Katarin Bokha, the Ice Queen of Kislev
Total War: Warhammer 3 rolls out a cool Kislev overhaul, changes befitting Tzeench’s magic, new projectile units and creakier skeletal horses
An image of a golden first place award from Geoguessr
'We're actually getting GeoGuessr on Steam before GTA 6': the Google Street View puzzler arrives on Valve's platform this April