Update: Criterion Founders Leave Studio

[Dragonbums]

And the death knell rings. I expect their next game to be a shittastic next gen masterpiece.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

While I enjoyed the Burnout series I do feel that most dev studios have a tendency to have a few good years in them (with few, very few notable exceptions) and then burn out... Pun may be intended.
This is why I don't get overly peeved when a studio goes the way of the dodo. I stopped feeling that way after seeing Sierra go down in flames which was sad because Adventure games seem to be making a slow but steady comeback and I always loved Sierra.
But in any case most of the studios that have been acquired by large publishers weren't in good financial straits at the time and would have folded on their own instead of having one more chance to do something. And some of them benefited, some of them flopped. Not everything can survive forever.

Thank you for recognizing this. It's amazing seeing how often publishers get blamed for buying a struggling company, then closing them down after they fail to make said publisher money. Even though common business sense would tell you that closing down divisions of a company that are costing you money is the right thing to do, and even though most of the companies get purchased with permission of the original companies.

There are exceptions. For example, Bioware got bought as part of a package deal. However, if you look at how Origin, Bullfrog, and Westwood were doing before they got bought out, they were struggling, to say the least.

OT: I'm inclined to believe that the founders did leave legitimately. There's no suspicious timing like there was when Bioware's founders left, and there's nothing to suggest it is something along the lines of West and Zampella's enforced exit from Infinity Ward. Maybe I'm just being optimistic, though. Especially since the 2012 version of "Most Wanted" was a fairly solid success both critically and commercially. At the very least, it outperformed "The Run".

As for the staff cuts, the information I have is that most of the "cuts" were caused by people leaving for Ghost Games UK to work on NFS games, rather than branching out into other genres, as Criterion seems interested in doing. I dunno. I don't really see anything fishy, saying that EA is killing the studio. It just seems to be fairly standard restructuring, with people moving companies to continue working on a franchise they've been working on already.

 

[Pyrian]

It's amazing seeing how often publishers get blamed for buying a struggling company, then closing them down after they fail to make said publisher money. Even though common business sense would tell you that closing down divisions of a company that are costing you money is the right thing to do...

You've basically got three somewhat overlapping possibilities, here. They made a bad investment. They unintentionally ruined the company after they bought it. They looted the company for IP. These are all the buyer's fault...

 

[VladG]

With so many big names leaving EA lately, I can't help but think of rats leaving a sinking ship. But I really don't like comparing these people to rats. Or EA to something as wholesome as a ship.

 

[not_you]

I don't know why Criterion stopped making Burnout and took over NFS...

I know I've said this many times before, but Burnout Paradise was an amazing game... Then Criterion took over from Black Box and screwed up Need for Speed...

But whatever...
The reasoning for WHY the two left (in my opinion) says the following:
"We no longer wanted to take orders. We enjoyed doing our own thing"

Good luck to them both... I only wish EA would let Criterion make another Burnout...

 

[awdrifter]

The rEAper takes another studio. In recent memory it was Bioware's founders left, and now this.

 

[Dragonbums]

Thank you for recognizing this. It's amazing seeing how often publishers get blamed for buying a struggling company, then closing them down after they fail to make said publisher money. Even though common business sense would tell you that closing down divisions of a company that are costing you money is the right thing to do, and even though most of the companies get purchased with permission of the original companies.

But the thing your leaving out is that as of last gen, many studios that were bought out by big companies like EA end up shutting down not due to them making money, but because said publishers turns their next games into some lowest common denominator stale crap that kills off whatever original market and/or fans they were going for in the first place. Like Bioware and Mass Effect. That studio has ONE MORE CHANCE to not fuck up with DA3. They already soured a lot of goodwill from their fans with ME3 and DA2. They fuck this one up (or EA) this studio ain't going to survive for very long at all.

 

[Grabehn]

Oh man, this is so annoying to see, fuck EA and their franchise-milking tendencies. I still play NFS Underground over most of the new stuff.

 

[TheMemoman]

I love Criterion and their racing games. Ever since Burnout and their NFS tenure I've supported and admired them. You always get the warm feeling that those games were made by racing games' fans. The mechanics and attention to detail were all geared towards making you go insanely faster and being reckless, and being rewarded for being the fastest. It sounds obvious, but there was a great deal of elegance in their execution. I wish them the best.

What's really sad is that the two studios that catered to my favourite racing games have gone sour. Criterion now disbanded and Codemasters who hasn't released a fun racing game since Dirt 2. Dirt 3's racing was alright but it was marred by so much bloat and Gymkhana's BS. Grid 2 was such a heartbreaking disappointment.

Here's hoping "Project Zero" it's a Criterion game at heart with all the renewed joy of being a new love child.