UPDATE: Fawsi Mesmar has revealed where he has landed. The former Head of Design at DICE has taken the roll of Vice President of Editorial at Ubisoft. Mesmar “will work with Ubisoft production teams worldwide to shape the creative vision of its games and ensure the inclusion of diverse perspectives throughout the production process,” the publisher said in a statement to GamesIndustry.biz. Though it may not be at an Xbox studio like I original predicted, Ubisoft is a great fit for him as the company tries to reorganize and pursue new avenues for games.
Original Story: Fawsi Mesmar, Head of Design at DICE, announced that he is leaving the company, as reported by Video Games Chronicle. Mesmar was integral to the design of games like Battlefield V, Star Wars: Battlefront II, and the recently released Battlefield 2042.
The former King Studio Director was promoted to Head of Design at DICE in 2019, overseeing a team of over 80 members to create some of the most popular shooters available. In his email to staff, he stated:
It was an absolute pleasure to serve on the best design teams in the galaxy,” he wrote in his email to staff. “The incredible design work that you do continues to inspire me every day. Thank you for putting some faith in me, I hope I didn’t disappoint.”
Fawsi Mesmar, Former Head of Design, DICE
Mesmar also had this to say:
“I have been 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]. It was super important to me to be here with the team as we achieve this historical milestone….While Oskar [Gabrielson, studio GM] and myself have been discussing my succession plans for some time – and it will be announced in due course – we opted to delay this communication till after launch to keep the focus – rightfully so – on the game we’ve been putting a monumental amount of effort on.”
Battlefield 2042 was released on November 19, 2021 to very mixed reception from fans, bugs that plagued multiplayer matches, lack of leaderboards, and a lot of empty maps. The shooter even receiving one of the lowest user scores on Steam.
My Take
What makes this exit more interesting for Xbox fans is that Fawzi Mesmar has taken an unannounced position at a studio located in Stockholm, Sweden. There are a lot of studios associated with and/or owned by Microsoft, including Avalanche (Contraband), Machine Games (Indiana Jones Project, Wolfenstein III, Rumored Quake Project), and Massive Entertainment (The Division, Untitled Star Wars project, Avatar). All of these projects are either owned by Microsoft or are heavily associated with their marketing and publishing arms. Personally I think he’s headed to Machine Games to help on Wolfenstein and lead a new Quake game. Only time will tell, but Xbox fans should keep an eye on this one.
What do you think? Let us know on our Discord or Facebook group!
Source: Video Games Chronicle
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