Electronic Arts is stripping yet another studio of its identity.
Within the ever-popular racing genre of video games, few franchises were as critically acclaimed and universally beloved as Need for Speed and Burnout, developed by the UK-based team at Criterion Games.
And when we say "developed", we really mean it in the past tense, considering that it seems like US-based parent company Electronic Arts has determined a new direction for the studio.
A Foreseeable Car Crash
Criterion's first major success – aside from their publication of the RenderWare programme in 1993, which would go on to be used across the gaming industry – came with the release of Burnout (2001), a racing game where you could accumulate boost by posing a risk to traffic: The more reckless your driving (like driving on the wrong side of the road, swerving or making others crash), the better your chances at winning.
This high-adrenaline formular proved to be very popular and led to a sequel in 2002, but since publisher Acclaim lacked marketing resources for the United States, Criterion partnered with Electronic Arts for the release of Burnout 3: Takedown (2004), who then decided to acquire the developer shortly after for around 68 million USD.
While EA are known for purchasing, micro-managing and then shutting down studios, Criterion was spared this fate for a long time, being tasked with taking on development of the popular Need for Speed series from Hot Pursuit in 2010 all the way to Unbound in 2022. Unfortunately, that title now seems to be last time we'll ever see Criterion be allowed to play to their strengths.
A New License Plate
Since 2014, Electronic Arts has slowly chipped away at Criterion's structures, assigning individual parts of the team to support development on other titles such as Battlefield 2042 (2021). With a smaller staff and tighter deadlines, the studio was deprived of the resources required for larger-scope racing games, which is why Need for Speed Unbound ended as a disappointing title to many fans upon its release in 2022.
Consequently, five senior members of the team left in 2023 to form their own studio with Fuse Games. After years of radio silence on EA's part following their departure, in July 2025, rumors surfaced which claimed that the Need for Speed series had been shelved by the company.
These rumors have been now been given more weight following the discovery that in August 2025, the name on Criterion's official website has been changed to "Criterion – A Battlefield Studio", emphasizing their new primary purpose as a support studio on other EA titles, leaving many Burnout and Need for Speed fans devastated.
But what do you think? Could EA maybe just hand development of these racing titles over to another studio? And if so, do these new titles even have a shot at mimicking their predecessors quality? Let us know in the comments below!