Criterion Become the Lords of Need for Speed

Game Informer spoke to Criterion Games’ VP, Alex Ward, at E3 and pressed him about the state of the Need for Speed series, finding out that Criterion is now in charge of the entire franchise, saying

“Our stamp’s going to be in everything you see in Need for Speed and Burnout going forward in the future. It’s not going to be spread anymore across different companies. Different studios have had a crack at it – it’s definitely a Criterion gig now.

“Going forward now, with Most Wanted and what we’ll do in the future [will have], shall we say, a strong Criterion involvement,” he explained. “I’m personally involved in how the cars drive, how the game will play out, how connected they are, and what the features are.”

While this doesn’t mean that Criterion will develop every single last Need for Speed game, they will be the developer lords to those developer peons.

This should prove to be great news to both racing and Need for Speed fans. Criterion Games is a tried and true racing game developer who have never really made a bad racing game, much like Codemasters. As for Burnout fans, Criterion haven’t forgotten about the series that made them uberfamous.