Criterion Completely Focused on Next Battlefield, EA Boss Foresees Revival of Need for Speed Series

[T0@st]

During yesterday's "Battlefield Labs" announcement, Electronic Arts revealed the full extent of its international multi-team development setup—dubbed "Battlefield Studios." According to their recent presentation, franchise originator—DICE (Stockholm)—is working alongside Ripple Effect (formerly DICE Los Angeles), Motive (Montreal) and Criterion (Guildford). EA's British studio is best known for its past work—most notably (going back nearly twenty-five years ago) the Burnout series and newer Need for Speed titles. The Surrey-based outfit appears to be completely devoted to working on the next Battlefield entry's single-player component—older press releases hinted about a new Need for Speed project. Around autumn 2023, Vince Zampella (Battlefield franchise overseer) announced that the majority of Criterion's team had shifted over to working on a next-gen Battlefield title, while a smaller "core group" would: "continue on what's next for Need for Speed."

Almost a year ago, Criterion and EA celebrated the Need for Speed franchise's thirtieth anniversary—a press release focused mainly on roadmapped content for Need for Speed Unbound (2022). The game was updated with a final chunk of post-release content last November. Eurogamer took it upon themselves to investigate Criterion's current internal formation, given that support duties have concluded on the NFS Unbound project. The online publication received a response from EA's top-most Battlefield developer. Zampella said in a statement to Eurogamer: "the Need for Speed team at Criterion are joining their colleagues working on Battlefield...As a company, it was important to us to take the last year to listen to our Need for Speed community and use their feedback to create content for Unbound...With an increased understanding of what our players want in a Need for Speed experience, we plan to bring the franchise back in new and interesting ways."



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[csendesmark]

Their bottom-line must been hit hard if they are back on doing actually good and loved games

 

[Carlyle2020hs]

As far as apologies go his wasn´t half bad.

I really hope he goes to :

- Pair a good collision model with good music. Chosen by young people.
- Let gamers tune their car. Inside and out.
- have i mentioned to fix the damn collision model?

Good luck!

 

[alwayssts]

Why can't the EA boss foresee a revival of the Burnout series?!?!

I know...I know. But seriously.

 

[Baba]

Their bottom-line must been hit hard if they are back on doing actually good and loved games

Of course, why else.

Electronic Arts announced Q3 2025 earnings on February 4, 2025, reporting an EPS of $2.34, which missed the consensus estimate of $3.41 by $1.07. With a trailing EPS of $3.89 and a P/E Ratio of 31.17, Electronic Arts' earnings are expected to grow 17.13% next year, from $5.02 to $5.88 per share.

I hope they stop this cartoonish crap that the last NFS was. The story and the look was unbearable. I really enjoyed the older ones. I want to turn off the story and just give me races.

 

[Prima.Vera]

Need for Speed Porsche was the best auto simulator and racing game ever produced.
They should do a remaster

 

[doc7000]

I would just like a remake or remaster of Need For Speed Porsche Unleashed.

 

[Macro Device]

I would just like a remake or remaster of Need For Speed Porsche Unleashed.

Need for Speed Porsche was the best auto simulator and racing game ever produced.
They should do a remaster

With how they do remakes/remasters I'm strongly AGAINST that.

Let gamers tune their car. Inside and out.

If you mean changing and adjusting the actual performance parts then yes, should be at least parring that of NFS5 to be interesting. Couldn't care less how my car looks, I need it to be stupid fast and dangerous.

Anyhoo, it's EA we're talking about. Until they actually provide a GAME, we might (or rather must) take everything they blabber about with a truckload of salt.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

As far as apologies go his wasn´t half bad.

If you were referring to Zampella's apology. It honestly wasnt his fault. He had nothing to do with the franchise at all until the last battlefield game flopped and Andrew Wilson let him take over.

Zampella is being professional by taking responsibility for the faults of his predecessors even though it was beyond his control. He's not the guy I and many of the community have grievances with. Its his bosses that have allowed the franchise to be lead down the path of destruction and attacked the community. The fans and veterans of the franchise when they spoke out against it.

Everyone remembers how much drama Battlefield 5 caused with EA trying to re-write history and insert certain things into the game that shouldnt be there and never would have been there. The "We want to be on the right side of history" Andrew Wilson speech and the "Dont like it? dont buy it" speech from Patrick Soderland. Not to forget the #NotMyBattlefield afterparty where they mocked the players and the community that wouldnt accept what they had done with the franchise. And then 2042 happened and oooooohhhhhhhhh boy.

Zampella has been in the industry long enough to know that you dont piss off the community/fans. But it doesnt help that he's always been tripped up by the people above him. It happened in Activision and its happening in EA because these publishers cant let people have a fun game without them shitting all over it one way or another before or after its release one stinky long drawn out turd at a time.

Rant over anyway.

Zampella should have formed his own publishing company. Im sure he has the contacts to do it but I dont think he wants to be the guy in charge of that stuff.

 

[KrazyT]

with good music. Chosen by young people.

No please, no music !
Why spend $ in music in game like that ?
First thing I do is set the music volume to 0.
Put your own music

 

[PLAfiller]

Need for Speed Porsche was the best auto simulator and racing game ever produced.
They should do a remaster

The OST is still amazing, I listen to it from time to time. I was too young when it came out and I found that game difficult to control.

I realized I am kinda not-so-real controls for racing games. I mean I like my cars "on rails" get in the corner on 5th and use the guadrail to continue I just wanna have fun, that's what I liked about NFS. Every time they messed with the way the car handles "more real" I skipped that edition.

 

[Vayra86]

Their bottom-line must been hit hard if they are back on doing actually good and loved games

Nah, this is just all they can really do. They're just adding yet another sequel to franchises they nearly killed themselves.

Business as usual. EA's umpteenth 'reboot' and how they really do care now, and oh, oh, YOU are involved! You're testing the games for them! Isn't it amazing! Please pay for your alpha here. The MTX will be added post release. After all, companies that make billions can't pay their own testing and QA, clearly you understand. Games are soooo expensive!

Talent has long left the building, thats why they scramble half their studios for this and then tape it together, much like Star Wars Outlaws. Be smart, do the same and just let this pass by. When you see Battlefield 'labs' you know enough. How can you require 'labs' to make a game you've already made that was great? Just install it again and see for yourself, it aint rocket science. Players just want simple things that are already invented, and great execution of those concepts. And indeed, you can't keep reselling that. Its there, and then its done. Everyone here knows they won't be bringing back any control over your own servers anyway. Gotta keep the customer locked in the corporate shithole of forced online DRM.

 

[csendesmark]

Nah, this is just all they can really do. They're just adding yet another sequel to franchises they nearly killed themselves.

Business as usual. EA's umpteenth 'reboot' and how they really do care now, and oh, oh, YOU are involved! You're testing the games for them! Isn't it amazing! Please pay for your alpha here. The MTX will be added post release. After all, companies that make billions can't pay their own testing and QA, clearly you understand. Games are soooo expensive!

Talent has long left the building, thats why they scramble half their studios for this and then tape it together, much like Star Wars Outlaws. Be smart, do the same and just let this pass by. When you see Battlefield 'labs' you know enough. How can you require 'labs' to make a game you've already made that was great? Just install it again and see for yourself, it aint rocket science. Players just want simple things that are already invented, and great execution of those concepts. And indeed, you can't keep reselling that. Its there, and then its done. Everyone here knows they won't be bringing back any control over your own servers anyway. Gotta keep the customer locked in the corporate shithole of forced online DRM.

I have no issue with open-beta program, they had those before.
And how do you want to compare idk 20 inhouse testplayers with 200K testplayers in an open beta?
So in short, I have no problem if a studio doing that.
I have a problem if a final product is incomplete... expect if the internet historian can do a funny video of it

Yeah, you can guess: I only pay 15~20€ for my games since I am not in hurry, I can wait years before touching them, just like anyone else
I know what happened to CyberPunk 2077, so I waited and bought it on the 3 years anniversary with v2point-o.
Nobody forcing anyone.

 

[AusWolf]

I remember when Criterion made one of the best arcade racing game series (Burnout). Then, EA bought them, and just like with everything touched by EA, Ubisoft or Microsoft, they went downhill pretty fast. Shame.

 

[jestermaroc]

Need for Speed Porsche was the best auto simulator and racing game ever produced.
They should do a remaster

Great memories, amazing game. However, I don't think they should go in that direction. There are too many great simulation racing games available today. I think they should consider a GTA/racing game hybrid. Something along the lines of Forza Horizon but with more story. What pulled a lot of people to NFS was Underground I & II, with an admittedly bare bones story, but it still appealed to us.

 

[Vayra86]

I have no issue with open-beta program, they had those before.
And how do you want to compare idk 20 inhouse testplayers with 200K testplayers in an open beta?
So in short, I have no problem if a studio doing that.
I have a problem if a final product is incomplete... expect if the internet historian can do a funny video of it

Yeah, you can guess: I only pay 15~20€ for my games since I am not in hurry, I can wait years before touching them, just like anyone else
I know what happened to CyberPunk 2077, so I waited and bought it on the 3 years anniversary with v2point-o.
Nobody forcing anyone.

I think I agree with you on that. Open Beta is fine and I get it especially for large multiplayer environments. You need it, even just to test infrastructure.

Its just not that black and white, and we've moved into a very misty area wrt 'the pre release' forms a game can have these days. Especially when those pre releases are actually costing you money. Also a big thing is what the beta is for. If it is also 'testing' basic game elements or... god forbid... a 'scoreboard' then I think we've landed in bullshitland. You don't need community feedback on those things. Just fucking build it already, its dead simple, you collect stats and you show them.

 

[Carlyle2020hs]

With how they do remakes/remasters I'm strongly AGAINST that.

If you mean changing and adjusting the actual performance parts then yes, should be at least parring that of NFS5 to be interesting. Couldn't care less how my car looks, I need it to be stupid fast and dangerous.

Anyhoo, it's EA we're talking about. Until they actually provide a GAME, we might (or rather must) take everything they blabber about with a truckload of salt.

Looks don´t matter?

Well i still miss my virtual car.

Even after 20 years!

2 decades and still no proper refresh of NFS Underground2 ?

OK. So don´t take my money

 

[Vayra86]

Looks don´t matter?

Well i still miss my virtual car.

Even after 20 years!
View attachment 383349
View attachment 383350

2 decades and still no proper refresh of NFS Underground2 ?

OK. So don´t take my money

Yeah somehow the customization of cars in that game was something I could spend half an evening on. Awesome

 

[ZoneDymo]

Yeah somehow the customization of cars in that game was something I could spend half an evening on. Awesome

sly boogy thats my name