Criterion’s future is not like its past.
A certain generation of gamers – the older ones – will associate the British studio’s name with the white knuckle Ronin-car-chase-inspired racing of Burnout, with its chaotic destruction and punk rock soundtrack. It’s the franchise that made the studio’s name, and for a period the lobby of its Guildford offices had a sculpture of a car bursting through the wall to commemorate it. The racing expertise was subsequently applied to Need For Speed, both at Criterion and sister studio Ghost Games, and Criterion delivered what’s currently the last game in the franchise, 2022’s Need for Speed Unbound.
Visiting the studio in its 30th year, the sculpture is gone, and so are many of the people who led that era. VP Matt Webster left with other veterans and went on to launch Fuse Games, which is soon to release the Burnout-infused podracing title Star Wars: Galactic Racer. Fiona Sperry and Alex Ward set up Three Fields and shipped Wreckreation (Sperry now heads successor studio When Tides Turn, working on Wreckreation 2). There is a new logo, a new team, and a new focus: As of 2023, the studio was officially brought under the EA Entertainment banner specifically to work on Battlefield.
At the time, it was said that Criterion would also continue to lead development on future Need for Speed games – but that franchise is currently dormant, while Battlefield is riding a historic high after the huge success of last year’s Battlefield 6. Going from cars to combat seems big shift, but studio leadership frames it as a continuation of a storied AAA legacy.
Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, producer Stefan Wittelsbürger says that Battlefield is Criterion’s “focus”.
“We are a Battlefield studio,” he says. “With Battlefield 6, we delivered some crucial elements within the title together with our partners of EA Motive, Ripple Effect, and DICE. Criterion has established itself as a clear, important pillar of Battlefield Studios as a whole, and Battlefield is our focus right now. The elements around delighting players, all that heritage, all that expertise, all that talent, all that history, and our uniqueness on how we approach game development as Criterion is reflected itself in Battlefield 6.”
Of course, Battlefield 6 isn’t the first time that Criterion has worked on a Battlefield game. The studio contributed to previous entries in the series, including 2018’s Battlefield 5 and 2020’s Battlefield 2042, although Rebecka Coutaz, VP and GM of Battlefield Studios Europe – a role where she oversees both DICE and Criterion – says that the company is now involved in projects right from the start.
“The difference this time around is that Criterion previously were asked to come in, not at the end, but when we were nearing the end on Battlefield,” she explains. “Now Criterion was asked to come in at the beginning. So [it] could contribute with all the strengths that this team sits on already from the beginning. The instant reward, the intensitivity, the adrenaline rush, the care about the players. Those footprints were already brought in from the beginning. When you come in with that kind of footprint from the beginning, you can have a much bigger impact than you can have if you come in later on in the production process.”
With four studios contributing to one project, it’s sometimes hard to get a sense – from the outside looking in – as to who is doing what. When it comes to Battlefield 6, Criterion’s Wittelsbürger says that the studio was “heavily involved” in the game’s single-player, in particular its last two missions.
“They were widely acclaimed and critically well received,” he explains. “We also worked very closely with our core systems, such as destruction, the combat field, guns, hardware, even vehicle handling elements. Criterion worked on a lot of this in Battlefield 6. What you see and what you play and how the soldiers behave and how the vehicles behave, we had our hand in that. All of that comes with our expertise, our heritage of what we brought from all those years of experience that our development team has. So working with Battlefield 6 right now, it just sets us up for even grander things.”
Burnout legacy
A certain set of gamers will always think of Criterion as the Burnout studio, even though that hasn’t been the case for a long time. But although the studio is developing in a different realm now, its current leadership argues that the same DNA that made its chaotic racing title so much fun is still present in its work today.
“Those things are kind of the Criterion fingerprint,” director of operations Amy Pejic says. “The minute to minute feel and gameplay, player momentum, controlled chaos, and spectacle. All those things that you’d feel in Burnout still are a throughline and [have a] fingerprint in the things that we deliver now.”
She continues: “We want to create memorable moments that people will talk about for years. It’s genuinely lovely that people still talk about Burnout. It obviously makes an impact and we want to continue to deliver those memorable moments. We want people to continue to talk about the things that we deliver.”
Wittelsbürger adds: “I mean, the spectacle of Battlefield 6’s eighth mission, Operation Ember Strike, had the SAM destruction, the feel of the drone as it moved, how it vibrated slightly, and how it dropped bombs. All those elements, we played with it, and we really want to continue to drive that feel, because I think it ties into our delight element. How do we delight our players? How do we delight whoever experiences our craft? How do we evoke the feeling of awesomeness that we want to give to our player base? That is the fingerprint that I think Amy’s referring to, and that is just a common denominator on how we approach game development at the studio.”
Criterion didn’t suddenly switch from Burnout to Battlefield. After 2008’s Burnout Paradise, the studio spent a while on the Need for Speed series, before contributing to Battlefield 5 in the form of the Firestorm battle royale mode. And there’s also a first-person shooter in Criterion’s dim and distant past in the form of the 2006 game Black.
“There’s been a whole array of work that has been shaping the team and has just illustrated to the organisation as a whole at EA that we are capable of tackling a lot,” Wittelsbürger says. “That just consolidated itself as being part of Battlefield Studios. Again, tying it slightly back to the breadth of work that we have to do in Battlefield, there’s just so much, and Criterion can deliver on so many fronts.”
Studio growth
The Criterion of today is 164 people strong; that’s a considerable increase on the 30 members of staff at the studio back in 2017. The current staff are split across two studios in Guildford and Wilmslow; while there’s nobody who’s lasted the studio’s 30-year run, a number have done more than a decade, and the current crew has racked up experience at AAA studios across Europe. The energy in the building – admittedly curated for a press visit – is positive, and the staff are upbeat about being part of a major release. The outlook is rosy, too, at least by current industry standards.
“We look to grow based on the demand of the project,” Pejic says. “So it really depends on where you’re at in that development cycle. If you’re a live game, there probably will not be as much growth. As we look to the future, growth would be dependent on what it is that’s demanded of us. Strategically, we look to grow where it makes sense.”
Wittelsbürger adds: “The talent pool is growing. There’s new kids coming in. We want to get the best talent involved in our game development process. We do outreach programs. We work with a lot of internships. There’s always an element of we want to keep that flow refreshing, and we’re always looking for the brightest and the best. There’s always space for us to grow, especially with people that bring a lot of that spark and that gameplay feel and that magic – fresh eyes, fresh mindset, multicultural elements. Creativity comes from all walks of life, and the more you have that pluralism in your perspectives, I think the better products you make, because you’re not just segregated to a single view.”
Some might look at the story of Criterion as a cautionary tale; a studio that was known for making unique, technologically advanced and fun games being bought by a huge publisher and subsequently being put to work on one of its big franchises.
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But that doesn’t appear to be the case. Studio leadership says that there is enthusiasm and hunger within the studio. (While not a concrete metric, Pejic says that the “appetite for swag” has increased.)
“As we were launching Battlefield 6, you could feel the genuine excitement,” she explains. “And I think as we continue to look to the future, it feels like a team that’s really excited about where we’re headed.”
“It’s always horrible when you hear someone say, ‘Well, that’s the way we’ve always done it’ – that’s usually the death of good process”
She continues: “We’re bringing in more and more new talent, especially earlier-in-career-funnel talent, interns and people who are bringing a really unique perspective. There is very much that history and that heritage with Criterion, and it still shows through, but it’s great to start to see this kind of fresh eyes approach. We want them to be able to challenge the status quo and the norm. I’ve been in game dev now for 20 years. It’s always horrible when you hear someone say, ‘Well, that’s the way we’ve always done it’ – that’s usually the death of good process. We still respect that heritage, but bringing in people from different studios, different backgrounds, very early in career, you could start to hear the conversations and those challenges, which is really good and really healthy. It feels like a blend of old and new, which I think is really great for a studio to have.”
And Criterion’s corporate owners have big plans for the studio. In short, the developer’s brightest days could be ahead of it.
“We want to be a British powerhouse,” Coutaz says. “We’ve always been a studio defined by continuous evolution, and with us now as a Battlefield studio, I really want Criterion to be considered the best studio in the UK. That is what we are working towards.”