Need for Speed developer Criterion to focus on Battlefield
Criterion, the British studio behind recent Need for Speed titles and the classic Burnout series, will now focus the majority of its efforts on EA's Battlefield shooter franchise.
A smaller «core group» within Criterion will continue on with Need for Speed, meanwhile.
Criterion has of course worked on Battlefield before, and contributed bits to DICE's Battlefield V and Battlefield 2042 (it also helped out on Star Wars Battlefront 2). The talented team will now turn its efforts back to improving 2042, and to the future of the Battlefield franchise overall.
The studio's most recent game, Need for Speed Unbound, dropped in December last year. Eurogamer liked it, but it sadly did not reach a large audience.
«Here's a familiar tale,» ex-Eurogamer petrolhead Martin Robinson wrote in our Need for Speed Unbound review. «A new Need for Speed comes out to zero fanfare and turns out to be pretty decent; decent enough, even, to feel like a return to form for EA's long-running series after it had experienced a fallow spell.»
Five senior, long-serving Criterion members left the studio around the same time, including general manager Matt Webster who departed after 23 years, to found new developer Fuse Games.
Today's announcement of a new focus for the majority of Criterion means the studio will shift to being part of EA Entertainment rather than EA Sports (the two halves of EA became distinct entities last year, though both still report in to company boss Andrew Wilson).
Eurogamer understands there will be no layoffs attached to this change.
«I'm thrilled to have a studio with such pedigree join the studios I oversee,» Battlefield and Apex boss Vince Zampella said in a statement. «As we've said before, we're all-in on
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