EA isn’t poking Criterion on the shoulder, telling the veteran game-development studio what to make next. The developer has been in charge of the highly lucrative Need for Speed franchise since 2012, but if it wanted to make Burnout this year instead, that’d be just fine. You see, when IGN asked general manager Matt Webster about this publisher-developer relationship, he simply stated that the decision of which racing game to make next has always been up to Criterion.
“I think one thing you’ve got to realize is that we’ve always had an amazing amount freedom to do whatever we wanted to choose,” Webster explained. “When we went into NFS, it was absolutely what we wanted to do; when we chose not to do NFS, it was what we wanted to do.
“We’ve always been masters of our destiny, that’s for sure.”
The next big game coming out of Criterion won’t be a racing-centric one, though. When asked about the company’s incoming project, Webster was brief yet clear.
“Beyond cars. That’s for certain.”
Look for something fresh from Criterion down the line.