Criterion Games Joins EA Entertainment - Working on Rebooted Battlefield Franchise

[T0@st]

Hi Everyone, today I'd like to share that the talented team at Criterion Games will be joining EA Entertainment. Criterion has a rich history in gaming, having worked on Battlefield, Battlefront, Burnout, and of course, Need for Speed. I'm thrilled to have a studio with such pedigree join the studios I oversee. As we've said before, we're all-in on Battlefield. Today, Criterion is added to our world-class Battlefield studios dedicated to ushering in a new era for the franchise.

The majority of the team will be working alongside DICE, Ripple Effect, and Ridgeline that are led by Byron Beede, GM of Battlefield. Criterion's experience with Battlefield, our technology and building engaging experiences will have an immediate positive impact as we continue to work on Battlefield 2042, and as we continue pre-production on a connected Battlefield Universe. There is no better studio to join us on this journey and I couldn't be more excited.




Work will also continue on what's next for Need for Speed. Many of you might be familiar with my history in games, having worked with extremely talented teams on Apex Legends, Titanfall, and Star Wars Jedi here at Electronic Arts. But you might not know I have a passion for cars, which also makes Criterion a perfect match for me to explore another genre in gaming that I love. I'm really looking forward to working with a core group as we shape what's next for the franchise.

Join me in welcoming Criterion to the team.
Thanks,

• Vince Zampella—Group General Manager of the Apex Legends, Star Wars Jedi, Battlefield and Need for Speed franchises

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[Blaeza]

Goodbye Criterion, you will be missed.

 

[Deleted member 229121]

Guess they weren't able to hire the 3x dudes who made Battlebit lol.

 

[wNotyarD]

Goodbye Criterion, you will be missed.

Wasn't Criterion already EA's?

Also, what will become of NFS? Codemasters only?

 

[Blaeza]

Wasn't Criterion already EA's?

Also, what will become of NFS? Codemasters only?

Back in my day...

Criterion has been EA's plaything for ages, now they are going to be merged and destroyed. Many a good time was had on Burnout 3 Takedown by me and my Mum.

CodeMasters as well with Micro Machines. I'm just full of memories and hate what's happened to these devs. I'm so OLD...

 

[SOGOKU]

EA, Battlefield Franchise, etc is all dead to me since a 2142.

 

[wNotyarD]

Back in my day...

Criterion has been EA's plaything for ages, now they are going to be merged and destroyed. Many a good time was had on Burnout 3 Takedown by me and my Mum.

CodeMasters as well with Micro Machines. I'm just full of memories and hate what's happened to these devs. I'm so OLD...

But that's what I'm trying to figure out.
Criterion was purchased by EA in 2004. What I understand is that during the reestructuring early in the year it was assigned to EA Sports, and now to EA Entertainment.
Not sure if that'd take NFS and Burnout off their hands, but Criterion surely is set to be a support studio which they've been working as fairly frequently in the last decade.

 

[Dragokar]

Hello DICE, so you remember your truly great games like Battlefield 1942, Battlefield 2 and of course Bad Company??? Do you remember???

And now look at what you've become, the destroyer of your legacy.......but hey you still can hide behind that: It was EAs decission.....Not ours.

The next studio withour a will is Criterion...farewell.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Hello DICE, so you remember your truly great games like Battlefield 1942, Battlefield 2 and of course Bad Company??? Do you remember???

And now look at what you've become, the destroyer of your legacy.......but hey you still can hide behind that: It was EAs decission.....Not ours.

The next studio withour a will is Criterion...farewell.

A lot of the team who brought us all the great earlier battlefield games are no longer at DICE. Most of them had already left by the end of BF3. The current DICE is not the same DICE.

Vince Zampella is currently team lead or one of the big executives in charge of Battlefield franchise so there is a small glimmer of hope that the next BF game wont be total garbage. They need to stick to the Battlefield formula and not try to turn the franchise into something that its not supposed to be like a hero shooter or PUBG

 

[seronx]

Oh, jeez, I hope we get Blackfield. Instead of another run-of-the-mill Battlefield. We really need Black and Bad Company combined. To get a really awesome Battlefield experience.

 

[alwayssts]

Back in my day...

Criterion has been EA's plaything for ages, now they are going to be merged and destroyed. Many a good time was had on Burnout 3 Takedown by me and my Mum.

CodeMasters as well with Micro Machines. I'm just full of memories and hate what's happened to these devs. I'm so OLD...

Respect. Many good times were had by me and myself playing Paradise, which I consider one of the true GOATs. I'm glad you were able to share that experience with someone, because the dopamine rush of those impacts were certainly infectious.

This is a true shame, but perhaps overdue, given, that like Bioware, Criterion appears to have long-since lost their spark.

Perhaps Three Fields could snap up some Crit/CM devs and make the game we all want them to, although that is probably asking for too much from an Indie.

I've long-wondered if a larger company (like MS/other) might buy out Three Fields and put something together, which is perhaps a long-shot but more-likely that EA making the thing so many of us want to see.

 

[MarsM4N]

A lot of the team who brought us all the great earlier battlefield games are no longer at DICE. Most of them had already left by the end of BF3. The current DICE is not the same DICE.

Vince Zampella is currently team lead or one of the big executives in charge of Battlefield franchise so there is a small glimmer of hope that the next BF game wont be total garbage. They need to stick to the Battlefield formula and not try to turn the franchise into something that its not supposed to be like a hero shooter or PUBG

Tbh. it's no surprise when you have the biggest morons in charge calling the shots. Only EA would pick a former Candy Crush DEV as the "head of design". $$$

Vince Zampella has at least experience with shooter games, but I am sceptical he & his freshman squad do even understand what the "quintessence" of a Battlefield is. He's a "Call of Duty" guy after all. Also who knows how long EA will support a dead horse. The Battlefield franchise is pretty much dead (at least for the Battlefield veterans) if they can't turn Battlefield 2042 around. Which will be a monumental task as the game is rotten from the core.

If he's smart he would just force the crew to play the old Battlefield games (BF:BC2, BF3 & BF4) for a whole week to understand what it's all about. Battlefield Origins.

 

[LabRat 891]

At least this'll 'save them' from the fate Volition suffered...
When Criterion earns disdain, it'll be all EA

 

[JohH]

Guess we're not getting a Burnout revival then

 

[Deleted member 185088]

This is the studio behind Burnout series? Those games were really fun!

A lot of the team who brought us all the great earlier battlefield games are no longer at DICE. Most of them had already left by the end of BF3. The current DICE is not the same DICE.

Vince Zampella is currently team lead or one of the big executives in charge of Battlefield franchise so there is a small glimmer of hope that the next BF game wont be total garbage. They need to stick to the Battlefield formula and not try to turn the franchise into something that its not supposed to be like a hero shooter or PUBG

BF1 was one of the best BF, better than BF3 IMHO, what happened to those guys? BF V was a joke compared to 1, a game about WW2 without the great patriotic war a remake of 1942 with would've been a way better idea. Then 2042

But given how rubbish CODs are, I feel people focus a lot on BF.

 

[ir_cow]

Still waiting for another BF3/4. None of this dedicated server none-sense. Allow personal servers with mods and you'll have a successful game. Not rocket science here. .

 

[Vayra86]

So now we get a 'Battlefield Crash Mode'

RIP franchise RIP studio

 

[wNotyarD]

Still waiting for another BF3/4. None of this dedicated server none-sense. Allow personal servers with mods and you'll have a successful game. Not rocket science here. .

What we need is Bad Company 3

 

[Dragokar]

A lot of the team who brought us all the great earlier battlefield games are no longer at DICE. Most of them had already left by the end of BF3. The current DICE is not the same DICE.

Vince Zampella is currently team lead or one of the big executives in charge of Battlefield franchise so there is a small glimmer of hope that the next BF game wont be total garbage. They need to stick to the Battlefield formula and not try to turn the franchise into something that its not supposed to be like a hero shooter or PUBG

I know, I know.......the sad thing about it is, they got all the potential and went the Riccitello route long ago.

My hope is that maybe we get a good BF1942 remake with some QOL and Balance update. I love that game, also BF2 which I played in leagues. xD

For now, I stick with Battlebit.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Tbh. it's no surprise when you have the biggest morons in charge calling the shots. Only EA would pick a former Candy Crush DEV as the "head of design". $$$

Vince Zampella has at least experience with shooter games, but I am sceptical he & his freshman squad do even understand what the "quintessence" of a Battlefield is. He's a "Call of Duty" guy after all. Also who knows how long EA will support a dead horse. The Battlefield franchise is pretty much dead (at least for the Battlefield veterans) if they can't turn Battlefield 2042 around. Which will be a monumental task as the game is rotten from the core.

If he's smart he would just force the crew to play the old Battlefield games (BF:BC2, BF3 & BF4) for a whole week to understand what it's all about. Battlefield Origins.

You would be surprised.

Not many people know this, but the original CoD (Which i played a lot of...some 3k+ hours last time i checked the xfire app when it was alive) was like a poor mans battlefield. It had big maps, tanks and Jeeps. But obviously vehicles were more of secondary feature so werent featured on every map and even then, there were limited numbers that would spawn at any given time meaning you had to be more careful with what you had when you had it. There were game types designed specifically for vehicles like Base assault where you were given big elephant tanks that were super slow and you had to go destroy each others bases - almost like conquest or domination but where the enemy couldnt capture bases back. Once they were gone they were gone. Zampella Also bought us Medal Of Honor Allied Assault and the Titanfall franchise so I assume he knows a thing or two when it comes to a lot of things in game design

This is the studio behind Burnout series? Those games were really fun!


BF1 was one of the best BF, better than BF3 IMHO, what happened to those guys? BF V was a joke compared to 1, a game about WW2 without the great patriotic war a remake of 1942 with would've been a way better idea. Then 2042

But given how rubbish CODs are, I feel people focus a lot on BF.

BF1 was pretty much the very last game the last few remaining OG DICE devs worked on. A great majority of the team were new faces or faces pulled in from different studios under EA's wing to build up the team and keep up progress.

I know, I know.......the sad thing about it is, they got all the potential and went the Riccitello route long ago.

My hope is that maybe we get a good BF1942 remake with some QOL and Balance update. I love that game, also BF2 which I played in leagues. xD

For now, I stick with Battlebit.

I wouldnt want a remake. That would ruin the game. A remaster would be a better idea. There are videos on youtube where the OG devs talk about the 1942 design and how they didnt want to take a serious fps or milsim route to it. They wanted the game to be fun/funny, light hearted and enjoyable.... and the way the game engine handled real world physics made the game stupid but so incredibly fun.

The moment you remake the game in a more modern game engine then all the magic is gone. I wouldnt want to change how backwards or obtuse parts of the game were mechanically.

And you know EA wont stop at just a 1:1 remake, they'll add an ingame shop, weapon/player skins and lootboxes.

Anyhow... They've given you 'Portal' in BF2042 for a lot of the older stuff.

 

[MarsM4N]

Still waiting for another BF3/4. None of this dedicated server none-sense. Allow personal servers with mods and you'll have a successful game. Not rocket science here. .

Nothing wrong with dedicated servers. Well, as long as they let you manage them & let you choose better server hosters.

After Battlefield 4 everything went downhill. They dumped PunkBuster anti cheat and on top of that they stopped giving access to their servers. We got basically none (or not working) anti cheat & on top of that no admin powers to restore order on the servers (manual banning of cheaters). Battlefield 5 & 1 is out of control, and cheating in BF2042 will also go through the roof once they end their "support". Just another case of EA cost cutting corners ruining the "gaming experience".

You would be surprised.

Not many people know this, but the original CoD (Which i played a lot of...some 3k+ hours last time i checked the xfire app when it was alive) was like a poor mans battlefield. It had big maps, tanks and Jeeps. But obviously vehicles were more of secondary feature so werent featured on every map and even then, there were limited numbers that would spawn at any given time meaning you had to be more careful with what you had when you had it. There were game types designed specifically for vehicles like Base assault where you were given big elephant tanks that were super slow and you had to go destroy each others bases - almost like conquest or domination but where the enemy couldnt capture bases back. Once they were gone they were gone. Zampella Also bought us Medal Of Honor Allied Assault and the Titanfall franchise so I assume he knows a thing or two when it comes to a lot of things in game design

I was like "what's he talking about multi player in the original CoD?" Turns out I got it mixed up with Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (with the epic Omaha Beach scene from "Saving Private Ryan"). Now I am not even sure I've played the original CoD, lol.

 

[Luke357]

Waiting on Bad Company 3 or a REAL BF4 successor.