Criterion Games staff reduced to 16 people

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Hydro_PT
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Criterion Games staff reduced to 16 people

Post by Hydro_PT »

Two weeks ago, it was announced that Ghost Games (former EA Gothenburg) was now in charge of developing Need For Speed games, having taken that role from Criterion Games. Now, it is known that the UK developer behind the Burnout series and, more recently, Hot Pursuit 2010 and Most Wanted 2012, has been reduced to the small number of just 16 employees.

According to the creative director, Alex Ward, most of the employees (60 to 65) were moved to Ghost Games to help develop Need For Speed: Rivals, which is due to be released in November 2013 for the current generation of consoles, plus PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

It is not known if Criterion is developing any other game, even though just in April this year, Alex Ward said the studio was "moving away from racing games". However, it seems that despite the small number of employees, a closure of the studio is not happening. Asked on Twitter if Criterion Games now feels vulnerable, Ward said: "Not at all. We are backed by a huge and successful wider company, Electronic Arts."

What are your thoughts on this? Is Criterion Games really just temporarily helping Ghost Games, or is this the beginning of the end for the UK-based developer?
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Re: Criterion Games staff reduced to 16 people

Post by Strafer »

RIP Burnout
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ianism
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Re: Criterion Games staff reduced to 16 people

Post by ianism »

wow. EA really does just drive all of its developers into the ground, doesn't it? they are awful :?
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MaxT
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Re: Criterion Games staff reduced to 16 people

Post by MaxT »

they are backed by a bunch of crooks.

yep Criterion is pretty much history, and so is Burnout...

oh and NFS as well I guess. though NFS died a long time ago, more specifically 2003.
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Re: Criterion Games staff reduced to 16 people

Post by RBA »

Depends on people's opinion, NFS is dead (for me) since Undercover.

As for Criterion, this happened with Black Box also. Ghost will be around for 2-3 years, then another "new" studio will take its place. I mean, that way you don't keep your employees for long and that way you don't get Unions or other "annoyance" around... Many companies do that now. They stay for a while at one place, then close it down and open somewhere else under another name, then it happens again and again. That way they can keep the profits high and the cost REALLY low. However it has an effect on product's quality, but EA don't care about that, as people just buy their games, anyway, cuz they're backed up by brand names that have a strong fan base.

Those 60 or so employees are only there to "teach" the new team about how World or anything else they were devlopping for the NFS brand work, after this will be done, they'll lose their jobs. That's how things works nowadays. And people don't understand why the World's economy not getting better...
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ianism
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Re: Criterion Games staff reduced to 16 people

Post by ianism »

well said RBA and Max T. agreeeed!
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Re: Criterion Games staff reduced to 16 people

Post by Phantom_pain33 »

Great job EA..goodbye Road Rash and Burnout. -____-
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Re: Criterion Games staff reduced to 16 people

Post by RBA »

Heh, they're gonna make some poorly made games and people will still buy them, making them lots of cash. So they don't care.

Only way to make them care if everybody stop buying EA's products. Personally I don't buy any EA products anymore.
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Re: Criterion Games staff reduced to 16 people

Post by MaxT »

RBA wrote:Heh, they're gonna make some poorly made games and people will still buy them, making them lots of cash. So they don't care.

Only way to make them care if everybody stop buying EA's products. Personally I don't buy any EA products anymore.
finally! someone who's talking sense.

only people to blame for EA still being the a**holes they are are the customers. period. if they don't fear bankruptcy, they won't change. and if you keep giving them money, they won't fear bankruptcy.
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RBA
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Re: Criterion Games staff reduced to 16 people

Post by RBA »

Exactly Max. But try to make it understand it to some people (like 2-3 years ago when we tried to boycott paying products for NFS World, cuz they left it full of bugs), some replies were (on that matter): "I've got money and you don't so you're jealous"; "It's my money I can do whatever I want with it" and my personal fav "go work to get money you freeloader!" (which didn't really fit the subject/discussion, but was said no matter what over and over again by World's fanboys/girls). And you know what, it's the same thing on almost every subjects of everyday life, just that you don't get the same replies when you try to tell someone they're wrong...
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Re: Criterion Games staff reduced to 16 people

Post by SonicTH228 »

I think what this thread is saying is close down this site.
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