Weeks after Battlefield 2042’s launch, DICE’s head of design leaves studio

Fawzi Mesmar, the head of design at Battlefield 2042 developer DICE, has left the studio, mere weeks after the developer’s latest game launched.

According to an email acquired by VGC, Mesmar and DICE general manager Oskar Gabrielson have been “discussing [Mesmar’s] succession plans for some time,” but they delayed the announcement of his departure so as not to distract from Battlefield 2042‘s launch. Mesmar’s last day at DICE was November 26th, a day after DICE released a patch that attempted to fix some of Battlefield 2042‘s many bugs, as well as rebalance its weapons.

Mesmar joined DICE in 2019, a year after Battlefield V‘s launch and two years after Star Wars Battlefront II‘s. Battlefield 2042 was the first and only game that Mesmar launched as DICE’s head of design. He previously served as studio director at Candy Crush developer King.

He has yet to announce his new position, though he stated in the email that he was “made an offer I couldn’t refuse at another company that has been kind enough to wait for me until we have shipped” Battlefield 2042.

To say that Mesmar is leaving Battlefield 2042 while the game is in a rocky state would be an understatement. Despite having an exceptionally positive experience with Battlefield 2042 prior to its official launch, the game has been riddled with bugs, glitches, and a toxic community, resulting in it becoming one of the worst-reviewed games on Steam. DICE has already released patch notes for its next update, but its post-launch content plans won’t even get a reveal until 2022.