The burn out of Criterion Games: What’s happening at one of the industry’s best studios - TIMELINE

In 2004, Electronic Arts acquired the Guildford, UK studio which went on to develop five more Burnout games. In 2012, the studio was shifted over to handle the Need for Speed franchise, but that lasted less than a year. In 2013, much of the staff, and Need for Speed, left for newly formed studio Ghost Games. Criterion Games was left with a small staff and a new focus on an unnamed game.

Follow along with metamorphosis of Criterion Games in this StoryStream as Polygon tracks where they've been and where they're going.

[The93Sting]

what a mess..

EA has completely abandoned Burnout for like the past 6 years or so, favoring NFS (which is becoming a S#itty franchise, to be honest) and forcing them to keep making NFS only.

Now we have lost the makers of Burnout, who's next? DICE?
For the record, they have lost the makers of Shift 1 and 2 (NFS games which is unrelated to NFS at all, but they're pretty cool IMO)

I only wish EA would offer some respect to their devs a little bit more, making them create and develop the game they want, and not by forcing them to MILK THE COW!

I'm waiting that day.

[micx]

Considering the launch of BF4 (we could also throw in BF3) and everything surrounding the game, I believe DICE is unfortunately next, shame because I always digged the franchise.

[Tru_Blu]

Unfortunately I'd agree. I can't imagine many of the staff are happy with their jobs anymore. I hope they stick around and EA lets them make the game they want to make at their pace.

[vigilante_man]

UPDATE:
I wrote to Criterion Games a few months ago after hearing they were in trouble just to thank them for the greatness of Burnout Paradise - my No.1 fave racing game EVER!

This was the reply I got...

"We are fighting fit and happier than EVER! We have chosen to go to a smaller team of amazing Criterion guys and girls as we think that we can be even more amazing in the early stages of something new with a small, fast team. Let me tell you, we have done more in the last few months with a tight team that we've managed with much larger teams in the past.

The core of Criterion is strong and very healthy. It's the people that you know, the people that have contributed the most to our games in recent year and the brains behind the very things that you have written about below.

We are embarking on something new and very exciting. We couldn't be happier and you can stay in touch with us @CriterionGames @TheWebsterHoff @AlexanderJWard."

So there you go.

Shame that Alex Ward seems to have left as he was at the forefront of their new development. Good luck to them all for the future!

[Welshy]

So it's highly unlikely that, in my opinion, the greatest racing game ever made won't be getting a long awaited sequel.

All I wanted for this gen was a new MGS, Fallout and Paradise, I'll be genuinely gutted if Burnout is done :(

[ZodTheRipper]

I always thought EA lets them make NFS because the NFS franchise belongs to EA ...and Burnout belongs to Criterion. But that's just an assumption, maybe the execs at EA are just plain stupid.

[TopDudeMan]

NFS has always been much more commercially successful than burnout and that's the bottom line for EA, I'm afraid.

While I'd love to see another burnout, I doubt EA are willing to put the team back together for yet another racing game franchise when they already have a successful fully-licensed game to work with with the same talented devs already working on it.

The best we could hope for is a NFS game that plays like burnout used to.

[Retroman]

@ topdude

ooooh HELL naw, that what was wrong with criterions HOTPURSUIT an MOSTWANTED to much of a clone of burnout instead of giving us NFS. if you love BURNOUT so bad buy those two games that will be the closes you'll get to burnout from now on.

we dont need open world burnout for speed but original NFS racing like UNDERGROUND, "BLACK BOX" HOTPURSUIT

[plsburydoughboy]

Popcap looks like they could be next on the chopping block. Plants vs Zombies 2 did not monetize to the level it was expected to, and even with Peggle 2 and Garden warfare on the horizon, the company seems to be in a challenging spot now that only one of the founders is left.

Also likely is DICE over Battlefield 4, but you already knew that.

Turns out being bought by EA is a kiss of death for these developers, and you have to wonder if they regret selling themselves to the company in the first place.

[DeadlyFire]

EA-Criterion is going in a different direction. Founders of the studio wanted something else from it. So they left. Maybe to form something better. They still have plans for games it seems :) https://twitter.com/Alexand...

Perhaps a spiritual successor to Burnout maybe? Or perhaps their new IP EA said wait you can't do this and that in this game. Lets change it to our way or some other non-sense. Either way I have alot of respect for these two. In the old days when Black, and Burnout became popular they were amazing games. EA changed Criterions plans and gave up on their ideals. Anything this new studio creates is bound to be great. I don't expect EA to be publisher.

EA is slamming NFS developing back to back year to year which downgrades the quality of any franchise. I don't even care to buy any annual game much anymore. Maybe 1 every 3 years or so.

[ZombieKiller]

I loved Burnout Paradise. I wish this game would come back!

[ape007]

Burnout 2, burnout 3, burnout revenge....some of my fav games ever

Paradise is great too but little bit less than the three above

[Kevlar009]

Burnout two is one of my favorites on my Gamecube.

The whole series is great, I remember playing the first way back when there were about 4 bonus cars (two of them were a bus and a semi-truck). We didn't care too much because the driving was solid, good graphics, and seeing you rack up insane damage scores during post-crash slow-mos was too fun

Burnout never took itself too seriously which was refreshing. It wasn't about simulation but fun driving and it's own humor

[nix]

burnout of PS2... offline races with friends. oh my god. how i miss those days!

NFS: Most Wanted was my favourite.

[urwifeminder]

Yeah I was not a big fan of paradise but the old burnouts I loved open world and lens flare are killing gaming.

[Beastforlifenoob]

sorry i dont understand what you are saying; are you saying you love the fact open world and lens flare are killing gaming or are you saying only lens flare is killing gaming.

wtf how is lens flare killing gaming... Im pretty sure gaming has some bigger ass problems right now.

i think you are being anti-lensflare fanboy because lensflare hurted one of your families eyeballs haha

[urwifeminder]

Yeah sorry meant I loved the old burnouts and open world gaming and lens flare are the hip thing atm fetch quests in the sun.

[hellzsupernova]

Great studio don't get me wrong here but I wouldn't say one of the best, they have be tight cast into making car games they had the chance of being creative stripped away from them by ea.

And let's be honest the heads of a studio leaving is not the end of a studio. Look at naughty dog they have gone from strength to strength even after some big names move on.

Big publishers need to look at naughty dog and try to grow a creative culture not a corporate culture inside of game studios.

[life28]

One of the best studios? What did they? Few great racing games, nothing for "Best studio in history" badge

[ape007]

i get and respect what you're saying but the burnout games gave me some of the best moments in all my gaming life

Gold Experience, especially the 3 ps2 games after Burnout 1

[vigilante_man]

@ape007
Amen to that. Burnout Paradise was and is the greatest fun I have ever had in a racing game.

The damage control is the best I have ever seen and the road Rages and Stunts were amazing features.

What made them a great studio? They gave so much to that game. They delivered free updates and patches and even added Day/Night racing for free. At the time what they were doing in supporting that game was a revolution.

Great game, great team.

[ape007]

burnout paradise was.....a paradise

better than NFS Hot Pursuit(ps3/360) and Most wanted(ps3/360) imo

[Thedaz3000]

You should research a bit more , criterion studios developed themselves a nice little multi platform engine that was flexible enough to power their Burnout titles but could handle large open worlds, had platform specific optimization a to suit PC,ps2,Xbox and GameCube . Renderware was that engine and while u might not have heard of it without it some of the biggest games of the ps2/Xbox era may not have been created . Best example is grand theft auto 3 through to San Andreas . Renderware was the 'Unreal'3 engine of that generation and one of the big reasons EA wanted to own Criterion.

Edit to add another user below beat me to it :-)

[WhatchaTalkinBout]

EA is what happened to them.. nuff said!!!

[MajorGecko]

the new NFS Most wanted feels like a mix of Burnout and NFS in one which is kinda cool but I would of rather had a burnout then a burnout NFS hybrid.

[NarooN]

Just fuck EA, seriously. I spent countless hours playing Burnout 2, 3, and Revenge on PS2 back in the day. The online for 3 and Revenge were incredibly fun and addicting, lots of great guys on that game too, nice community. I remember those days in general, it was actually really rare to encounter trolls and griefers. How the times have changed...

Paradise was still a good game, but not as good as the previous games. A shame really, since NFS also used to be awesome (remember Hot Pursuit 2? still an awesome game) and now it too has become trash.

[r3f1cul]

never liked burnout, or the over all style of drift/crash racing that criterion is all about... i miss the old school twitch based NFS games so since they took over i havent liked a single NFS game, but thats just me... still its a sad day when EA fucks another studio. EA is just a train wreck for the past 3 years makes me sad because so many good things get ruined because of their association with EA it seems :(

[ape007]

Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2 on ps2 was pure awesomeness

[r3f1cul]

indeed i agree one of my absolute fav racing games ever made! and i miss that style of racing in the NFS games, they just dont have that twitch style driving anymore its something else now and it sucks to me...

[abstractel]

I've enjoyed the last two NFS. They weren't perfect, but neither were the Burnout games but at the time they were released they were a lot more ground breaking. NFS seems to be playing it very safe, at least with Ghosts' Rivals and Criterion's last NFS. Never like seeing talented developers' creativity stifled though so I hope the founders are off to bigger and better things. A good publisher really makes a huge difference so I hope they find one that will allow them to push things forward.

Ghost seem capable of turning out fairly high quality NFS games for EA. Rivals really should have been 60fps at the fidelity it's at on next-gen consoles but it was a launch title and the post-launch update did remove the frame-stuttering making it feel smoother. Rivals was a good first outing and my expectations are neither high nor low for their future, they just seem competent.

I'm looking forward to The Crew, that seems to be the next forward thinking arcade racer on the horizon. Sad that it's been delayed like so many other next-gen games.

[DarkAzureIIIX]

They maybe working on Black 2

[r3f1cul]

i would welcome black 2 with open arms, i loved the first one and what they were capable of on ps2 and original xbox... would be amazing to see what they can do now. that and another man hunt are most wanted game revivals

[ApocalypseShadow]

EA is just a ruthless,evil company that deserves the worst company of the year award...EVERY year.it's why i don't buy their games.

they destroy developers and steal ideas from competitors and call it innovation.

critierion was a great developer.but burnout was the up and coming racer that rivaled need for speed.EA doesn't like competition but loves tech.so they took both.they bought criterion to kill competition and they wanted RENDERWARE.most companies used renderware for games but EA thought they could kill two birds with one stone.if you noticed,as soon as criterion was bought,ALL companies had to come up with a middleware solution and used UNREAL ENGINE to make games last generation.because EA now owned the software.

EA refused to make dreamcast games because sega used POWER VR and not 3DFX which EA was used to on PC.and since the big boy didn't make sega games,smaller companies shunned dreamcast as well.most devs didn't use the microsoft WIN CE to make DC games.

EA also wanted FROSTBITE.they don't care about the company that owns it.they always want the best tech and try to kill competition.but they will also buy companies and use them up,then close them.it's only about profits to them.EA is like microsoft.how many developers have closed because of these two american companies?

notice how they killed NFL2K5 by buying all the football licenses.notice how burnout is no longer a competitor,but also,no longer made.notice how EA published once rival games from midway with nba jam,nfl blitz,etc.but also made competing games like nfl street,nba street etc and advertised/marketed midway out of business.notice how they bought all the big name boxers so no one can make boxing games except them.now they no longer make boxing games.

EA is evil.and they know they are.it's sad they are so big and won't die as fast as i want them to....fifa,ncaa,porche license,etc..they are competition killers and dev closers..

DON'T BUY THEIR GAMES....you only hurt the game industry by doing so.

[Beastforlifenoob]

yes most evil:
https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[Adolph Fitler]

They were the best studio for arcade racing games in the PS2, GC & Xbox Original era, that is a fact, no other arcade racing game came close to Burnout...Especially Burnout 2 & 3, which were the absolute top dogs or not just the series, but arcade racing. Shove all your other hybrid arcade sim wannabe trash, Burnout was sheer, adrenaline inducing, FUN...Nothing came close for sense of speed & the sheer thrills you got from one of those perfect laps or races, without a collision....OH MY GOD, the collisions.....they were just mag-f^cking-nificient, the carnage & mayhem of a smash in those games is still unrivalled....debris, chunks of metal & sparks flying everywhere...and the crash modes were genius & so f^cking fun it was stupendously dumb that they were abandoned.....Series certainly lost my heart with Paradise, that's for sure.

As for EA, they are a company, a company that has been through there own hardships & financial woes, so they logically have to do what makes financial sense...The fact is, developers either become too greedy, or struggle as independents, so either way sell out to companies like EA....I personally, if a developer would try to never sell my IP's & such, I would struggle to stay independent & at most have a company like EA be my distributor, as I've seen so many great developers get buried under the likes of EA & MS (2 of the worst at controlling developers, then dropping them) best example is Oddworld Inhaants which both EA & MS buttf^cked that hard that Lorne Lanning left the industry for a while.

Gamers are the problem too, I mean dummies would buy half ar$ed NFS attempts over Burnout in the PS2 days & GT Prologue's...WTF is that sh1t. Gamers need to pull there fingers out & scout out the better games, the different games, like Ico & SOTC, BG&E, Okami, God Hand, Riddick, support great developers & awesome IP's, rather than constantly updating sh1tty soccer, Madden, COD & such games. Burnout should have sold 100 million copies from the PS2's first inception, through to the releases of all 4-5 titles on PS2, GC, Xbox Original, & 360.. Every self respecting gamer should have owned at least 1 in the series. I mean damn.

[lilmetal]

Criterion's Most Wanted was my favorite NFS game since Hot Pursuit 2, as well as Ghost's Rivals.

[JasonKCK]

They could get some of that greatness back if they just made Black 2.

[toddybad]

This is OUR doing though.
We keep buying franchised games.
When Need For Speed 6002 or Battlefield 67 are still shifting units by the bucketload it causes the likes of EA to keep shipping them out every year. We all know that the difference from one NFS game to the next is negliable (and the same for BF, COD etc) but we still purchase the next game - often for the simple fact others have so we have to follow to keep multiplayer fun.
If we stopped buying the next numbered games then they'd be forced to be creative and deliver new games rather than rehash after rehash. The fact people are crying over the fact thatvthey can't have another rehash of Burnout makes me think this must be what the public want - just 6/7 big games every year and nothing else.

[MoveTheGlow]

The last real Burnout was Burnout Paradise, a game that tons of other racers would have only dreamed of imitating. It was light-years ahead of anything else like it out there, and that was a follow-up to the best iteration on their previous Burnout numbered series. If there, hypothetically, was another big Burnout from that old non-EA'd studio, I don't think we'd see a rehash.

Basically, not all franchises are a bad thing, so long as they're done right. Until they went through the Need For Speed stuff, this was a franchise to save.

[Yurtigo]

What a shame.

[Gamerita]

the only company should be allowed to buy small gaming studios is SONY because they will do well with the backup of such smart & supportive company,microsoft,EA,activisio n they all are bad news for smart developers.

i'm still gutted that SONY sold crash bandicoot to activision.

[Hazmat13]

they gotta get back in the FPS games. BLACK was the most fun i had with a FPS besides time splitters.

[Adolph Fitler]

@Gamerita... Your right in one way, I'm a HUGE Sony fan, due to there awesome 1st party developers, 2nd parties, & the fact that Sony nurture them to do new things & do not try controlling them & steering them into doing the "Corporate" thing.....But by the same token, it has come back to bite so many of there studios, due to Sony totaling ignoring or under cooking hype & marketing for many games...Resistance is a great example, & I truly believe the mistakes Sony msde with Insomniac on that series is what forced Insomniac to go multiplat.... Sony simply should have given the series FAR more exposure & financial backing to ensure it sold like it so deserved....as especially the 1st game & 3rd were highly impressive FPS's (2 of my faves, slightly below the Timesplitters series)....
Ico & SOTC are 2 other great examples that should have been way more hyped & exposed by Sony (although, at least I saw SOTC in an ad or 2 & in that depressing Adam Sandler film)......

Sony's studios have also suffered when they do keep studios making know IP's, as shown with London Studios & the Wipeout series, as well as others. Maybe Sony should have put Zipper straight onto a new Socom, & controlled them in a fashion that ensured it would be more akin to the PS2 Socom's...if they could have pulled that off, MAG could have come after, & if Socom nailed that old feel fans wanted, then bam, massive PS3 sales would have meant Zipper may still exist.
And had Sony have kept development on The Getaway 3 (well, it was a popular series, & half of Englands install base would have bought it...Then take series like Medievil, Destruction Derby, Jet Moto, Syphon Filter, that were ALL very popular series that were made extinct after PS1 & 2, some for unknown reasons others for quality reasons (Destruction Derby & Syphon on PS2 sucked).

Ignorant gamers are the main problem though, they just refuse to either investigate reviews on some absolute stellar games that deserve there attention, or are just too gutless to take the punt on something they don't know whether they would play.....Then there are just those that only like this type of game, or that type of game....Like these 1 dimensional clowns that live on C.O.D., & won't expand there horizons beyond that mindless drizzle...Hence ruining the experience for the less experienced & newbies (well, they help the developers with those sh1tty, awful, perks, ruin it for newbs).

Oh & Gamerita. don't be gutted & blame Sony for Crash's sale, I'm pretty sure that was all Naughty Dogs doing, as Sony hadn't bought them at that stage...I may be wrong, but I thought Sony only bought ND into PS2's lifecycle. And, I'm glad anyway, as Crash had gone as far as he could, & ND's move to true 3D platforming with Jak & Daxter was kicka$$...I just hope they do another Jak & Daxter, or other 3D platformer on PS4, that is more like the 1st Jak & Daxter, as for me, that was the best in the series. The tacked on weapons in the series sequels felt wrong, & like a cheap rip off of THE FAR BETTER Ratchet games, as well as the obvious GTA influences that took the platformer joy out of the series.