Alex Ward, vice president and creative director of Criterion Games, and Fiona Sperry, studio director, have left the studio they co-founded. Criterion is of course most famous for creating the highly acclaimed Burnout series and pumping fresh blood into the creatively defunct Need For Speed series and it's a bit of a shock to see them leave while the studio was still so successful.
"Alex Ward and Fiona Sperry have decided to leave EA," a spokesperson told Polygon this morning. "We appreciate their many contributions through the years and wish them well in their future endeavours. The incredibly creative and talented team at Criterion are hard at work on a new project for next-gen consoles as new IP continues to be a major priority across EA. Matt Webster is leading development of the new game and the Criterion studio moving forward. Matt has been part of Criterion for years and has an exciting vision for this new game."
It's a weird time to leave the studio- they had planned a new, presumably non-racing game for a studio burnt out (no pun intended) on doing nothing but racing games for so many years. The one title of theirs that didn't involve cars, Black, was an acclaimed first-person shooter that hit the original Xbox far too late into its lifespan, the stunning graphics overshadowed by what was possible on the 360.
Of course, for my money Criterion make better racing games than anyone. Their Burnout series exemplifies what's best about racing games- driving fast and recklessly and crashing in glorious fashion, and the open world of Burnout Paradise still is the pinnacle of the genre. When Criterion took over for the Need for Speed series the world took to them as well. EA's awful tactic of releasing a new Need for Speed game a year seemed to have been too much for the studio, though, and a new studio called Ghost Games (comprised mainly of Criterion employees) was put in charge of the series,
Alex Ward is currently answering questions on Twitter, saying what little he can about his new endeavour.
"Just decided to start afresh and form a new games company with @FionaSperry #freshstart"
Fiona Sperry just posted the following message-
"As director-producer partnerships go @AlexanderJWard & mine has been a great one. 14 years. 5 Burnouts. Black. 2 NFS. #justgettingstarted"
Best of luck to them on their new studio! We'll be covering this news closely.
