Just in case you have any hope EA is preparing a new entry in this need for Speed The boss in charge of the franchise, Criterion Games, the team responsible for nfs unboundAmong other installments, he has shattered that dream. A look at Criterion on the UK studio’s 30th anniversary, published by ignThis makes it completely clear that the team is everything Battle field Now.
The story struggles with how to recognize the glimpses of Criterion’s former self. This is the group that gave us burn out And Blackand gave the industry its once ubiquitous renderware engine. It breathed new life into the NFS series with the 2010 chase Reboot. However, that history has no place within its walls today, as EA VP and CEO of Battlefield Studios Rebecca Coutaz told the website.
I’m just going to quote Article In full here, because it’s so factual that explaining it would spoil the feeling:
When I ask if the Burnout and Need for Speed developer’s newly established scope might include other projects besides Battlefield, Kautz clarified: “We’re completely focused on Battlefield.”
However, as long as we’re talking about the company’s walls, it’s also worth noting that they now have a logo that reads, “Criterion: A Battlefield Studio.”
To call this a tragedy during an already fraught era for video game development would be putting things lightly. Studios are being closed left and right, and those that remain at big publishers like EA are only allowed to stay if they work at the cash cow. Except, it’s not a cash cow, because despite a very respectable launch, battlefield 6 Has struggled to retain players, thanks in no small part to Publisher’s controversial decision All around support after launch.
So, we have another situation where a developer’s creative autonomy and the spirit that gave them an identity in the first place are stamped out in favor of an executive vision that is alienating players. I did not love nfs unbound; I thought its driving was poor, its economy and pursuit system were stifling and it didn’t look very good, it thrives on an otherwise lively world by cramming crude cob-shaded characters. But it wasn’t a complete failure, and losing NFS makes a shrinking genre smaller. and while forza horizon Breaking trends and continuing to prove that racing games can still be blockbusters, this is the only game that exists anymore (besides Mario Kart), and so alternative expressions of arcade racers fall by the wayside.
None of this is surprising coming from EA, of course, the company that snagged Codemasters at the start of the decade for its F1 license, then summarily shut down everything the studio did besides F1. Beloved legacies in the racing game world, from need for SpeedTo Colin McRae dirtTo gridTo burn out-That which has most obviously been absent the longest, somehow – deliberately, curiously thrown away. The best we can hope for is that the people who made those games find new homes, willing to invest in what they do so well, and make up for what’s lacking in the medium.
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