Criterion Reduced to Staff of 16

[Patticus]

Burnout series developer Criterion Games has been reduced to a staff of 16 employees following a recent Electronic Arts studio reallocation.

Criterion creative director Alex Ward outlined the studio's current status via Twitter, confirming that Criterion is now "a small team."

Between 60 and 65 Criterion employees were reassigned to Sweden-based EA subsidiary Ghost Games in order to assist in developing the upcoming multiplatform racer Need for Speed: Rivals. Ward explains that the departing staff has since joined a new team, Ghost UK.

Prior to its staff reduction, Criterion developed recent Need for Speed series entries Hot Pursuit and Most Wanted. Criterion confirmed earlier this year that its current project is not a racing game.

Joystiq has contacted Electronic Arts for clarification.

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/09/13/criterion-staff-reduced-to-16-as-ea-shuffles-studio-talent/

God dammit, how long will EA keep them going now, after sidelining the studio so needlessly and dramatically?

It's all on Bioware and DICE now, until the corporation discovers a new studio to begin siphoning the lifeblood from (Respawn Entertainment, probably)...

 

 

 

 

[Wraith]

After the shittastic Need For Speed Most wanted, I don't have much faith in Criterion anymore. Not while EA is running them.  It's a shame, because they have made some of the best racing games ever in the past, and now the Need For Speed series is a shell of it's former self and the burnout series is damn near dead. 

 

Still, It's a shame that the studio is being taking apart.

[RK64]

What a shame, these guys are wonderful developers . I loved Burnout Paradise when I got my PS3 back in 2011 (spent a lot of time jumping off ramps and crashing into things ) and I really enjoy playing NFS: Most Wanted on my Vita (one of the three retail games I currently own for it; amazing they got the graphics to look so good ). I hope with this split (as Criterion is still there, its just that most of the staff is working on NFS: Rivals) they can do what they do best; make kick as games that are a ton of fun to play .

 

At lest the talent is still there, much more than one could say about other developers out there (poor Rare )

[C4k3]

Dammit, I really did love the Burnout series. A shame that it's pretty much gone now. It kind of lives on in the NFS series (Most Wanted feels like a spiritual successor to Burnout Paradise) but even that has gone downhill.

 

Need for Speed: Underground 3, please!

[Wraith]

I'll take any new Need for Speed game that's not an online centric DLC ridden mess. 

[KrazyBean]

Well I for one am looking forward to NfS Rivals...it's basically Hot Pursuit 2 with an open world, and I don't mind that.

[Tornado]

A developer rather long past its prime as a separate entity is broken up; with the staff not fired, but instead relocated to other parts of the company to assist in development elsewhere.

 

 

 

If it wasn't EA who did it, would anyone really be so enraged?

[Mr Loopone]

If this is true, then it is going to be a sad story that not only the Burnout series have gone but also a talented developer who in some cases contributed more than people who know. They contributed the RenderWare engine that was used in a lot of games during the PS2/Xbox/GameCube era. Sonic Heroes was a poor use of it in terms of the PS2 version but there were plenty of other games that used it better. Not only that but the Burnout series where do I start? Burnout 3: Takedown [Xbox version] and its PSP counterpart co-developed by EA UK Burnout Legends are very high in terms of my favourite racing games of all time with only OutRun 2006 being on the same scale of fun. Both them and Burnout Paradise, I have played every day for months [well only 2 weeks for Burnout 3 due to being slightly easier and shorter than Legends and remembered much of the spots].

 

Sure Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2012) wasn't their best game but it was still a decent game with really good Vita port that was pretty close to feel to the PS3 version and pushing the Wii U to the point of having the best graphics next to the PC version even if it is crash prone. Strangely enough even though Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is a good game, it took me a while to warm up but I found the cop mode to be enjoyable.

 

I am glad that most of the staff have been relocated so at least the developers haven't lost their jobs and I'm sure Need for Speed: Rivals will turn out okay with the new Swedish developer on board, so it's not a complete sad story just that the legacy of the studio needs to be remembered for technical reasons.

 

With Blitz gone this week (they made licensed shovelware but they had no other options and their only kickstarter failed) and Criterion more or less gone, there's hardly any UK developing studios left at this rate except the mobile only companies. Let's see who else has gone for the past couple of years: Bizarre Creations, Eurocom, Studio Liverpool. I'm worried about Sumo Digital since if they go, goodbye Vienna since if they and Slightly Mad go, the racing genre would be nearly dead apart from Forza, GT, whatever Codemasters makes and whatever Milestone makes. Its even worse in Japan where the only developers that I know of that are still active are Polyphony and Nintendo, even then both don't make as many racing games.

[Remy]

Most wanted is a good fucking game. So was hot pursuit. The only thing wrong with most wanted was the fact a lot of it was fucking gutted and you had to buy boatloads of DLC if you wanted to play it for more than ten hours or so. Without executive meddling cramming DLC in there that would have been a really great racer, IMO. 

 

If criterion are dead, that sucks ass. Seriously. 

[Patticus]

If it wasn't EA who did it, would anyone really be so enraged?

 

People wouldn't be so enraged if it was a studio with a less than reputable track record getting the axe, but Criterion hasn't done badly at all lately; if you are only as good as your last game, then Criterion is in really good shape. Sorry, was in really good shape. That's why its likely demise is so outrageous, especially given how unimpressive the Ghost team's project looks.

[Boomer]

 

With Blitz gone this week (they made licensed shovelware but they had no other options and their only kickstarter failed) and Criterion more or less gone, there's hardly any UK developing studios left at this rate except the mobile only companies. Let's see who else has gone for the past couple of years: Bizarre Creations, Eurocom, Studio Liverpool. I'm worried about Sumo Digital since if they go, goodbye Vienna since if they and Slightly Mad go, the racing genre would be nearly dead apart from Forza, GT, whatever Codemasters makes and whatever Milestone makes. Its even worse in Japan where the only developers that I know of that are still active are Polyphony and Nintendo, even then both don't make as many racing games.

We may not have a lot of developing studios but the ones we do have are bloody good! Off the top of my head we have Rockstar, Media Molecule, Sumo Digital and Rocksteady.

[Patticus]

Add Creative Assembly and Team 17 to that list, as well as Rare.

[Boomer]

Like I said it was off the top of my head 

[Sonic The Badass]

R.I.P.

Edited September 14, 2013 by Insane121

[Nepenthe]

R.I.P.

 

This doesn't really count as a contributing post. xP;;

[Kaabiitorori]

Months after Criterion Games' staff had been reduced to 16...

 

Co-founders of Criterion Games leave studio

 

Alex Ward, vice president and creative director of Criterion Games, and Fiona Sperry, studio director, are both no longer working at the studio, Electronic Arts has confirmed to Polygon.

 

"Alex Ward and Fiona Sperry have decided to leave EA," a spokesperson told Polygon this morning. "We appreciate their many contributions through the years and wish them well in their future endeavours.

 

"The incredibly creative and talented team at Criterion are hard at work on a new project for next-gen consoles as new IP continues to be a major priority across EA.  Matt Webster is leading development of the new game and the Criterion studio moving forward. Matt has been part of Criterion for years and has an exciting vision for this new game."

 

The departure comes at a time of uncertainty in the studio, following several years of changing focus for what the studio was working on. Ward's most recent LinkedIn profile shows that he's working on "unannounced project zero." Sperry's LinkedIn profile shows her working on the "Team Zero" project, which is described as "the next thing from Criterion Games." We've reached out to both Ward and Sperry for comment and will update this story when they respond.

 

The two formed Criterion Games in 2000 out of Criterion Software, a technology company that developed RenderWare. In the years since, the studio created and nurtured the over-the-top Burnout racing games. Following the 2010 release of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and 2011's Burnout Crash, Criterion was given stewardship of the Need for Speed franchise with Need for Speed: Most Wanted.

 

In a 2012 interview with Polygon, Most Wanted executive producer Matt Webster told Polygon that while all future Need for Speed games may not be developed by Criterion, but that the studio would have creative oversight of the franchise moving forward.

 

"We are always going to have a handle in it," Webster said at the time. "We're not really talking about where we go next, but we definitely have a creative hand on the tiller."

 

But just one year later that was no longer the case. During a Gamescom interview in August of last year, Need for Speed Rivals executive producer Marcus Nilsson told Polygon that the newly created Ghost Games studio was now in charge of the franchise.

 

"Ghost is now leading Need for Speed and there will certainly be some announcements about how that will evolve and work in the near future," Marcus Nilsson, executive producer on the game, told Polygon. "Criterion is doing something else, but that doesn't mean they can't help us on this."

 

Nilsson said that about 80 percent of Criterion was working on Rivals with the remaining group working on a mysterious "new project." A month later, Alex Ward tweeted that 60 to 65 people moved from Criterion over to Ghost Games, seemingly permanently, to work on the game and the franchise, leaving about 20 at Criterion.

 

That same month, Andrew Wilson was made CEO of Electronic Arts and shifted EVP of EA Labels Patrick Soderlund to become the EVP of EA Studios. With that shift, the Need for Speed franchise was moved over to reporting to Matt Bilbey, a senior vice president of EA who oversees sports.

 

"We think that could benefit from from fresh eyes, could benefit from some different thinking, and we think that Matt is the right guy to do that," Solderlund told Polygon at the time. "He's got a very different viewpoint about how to make games and what great games."

 

Update: After the news broke on Polygon, Ward tweeted that he "just decided to start afresh and form a new games company with Fiona Sperry."

 

Not surprised after how EA sidelined a good part of Criterion for their own interests. I wish 'em the best of luck on their future projects.

[Milo]

Calling it now. The Team Zero project Criterion's working on will end up either not being as well-received as their past games or will not live up to whatever standards EA sets for the game. Regardless what happens, EA will use that (or a slightly related excuse they will pull out of their ass) as justified grounds for canning the company just so they can "officially" hand the reigns of the NFS/Burnout franchises to Ghost Games.

 

Hate to say it, but I have the feeling this is what's going to happen over the next few years.

 

That pic in the OP about EA dispatching former developers and hinting this will happen to Bioware eventually? Someone should add another body in the second panel with "Criterion" branded on it's face.

[Kaabiitorori]

I dunno how, but something tells me that EA wanted to manipulate Criterion since the moment they were bought...

 

They saw how the Burnout series began to become a direct competitor against Need For Speed, so EA decided to purchase Criterion. They let Criterion carry on with the Burnout series; by the time Burnout Paradise was released, NFS started to lose ground, so EA decided to give them the franchise. EA have kept them doing only NFS games since then, either directly (Hot Pursuit and Most Wanted) or making them collab with another developer (Rivals). Now, where is the Burnout series? Well, there you go.

 

Summing up, EA somehow wanted to get rid of the Burnout series in the benefit of their own Need For Speed series. May sound like a conspiracy, but coming from EA's background and tendency to destroy any development studio for their own purposes I wouldn't be surprised for this to make sense.

[Tornado]

Need for Speed and Burnout weren't really direct competitors at the time EA bought Criterion. The former series was practically at it's peak at the time (the buyout was sandwiched between the release of Underground and Underground 2, which both sold approximately 1 Metric Assload each).