Whatever Happened To The Burnout Games?

For much of the 2000s, Criterion Games' Burnout series dominated the arcade racing genre. Its blend of lightning-fast driving, slow-motion crashes, and killer soundtracks made for some phenomenal games that people still revere today. With five mainline games — Burnout, Burnout 2: Point of Impact, the critical darling Burnout 3: Takedown, Burnout Revenge, and Burnout Paradise — the series continually evolved and added unique, exciting features that kept gamers engaged.

Unfortunately, much to the chagrin of the gaming public, Burnout fell by the wayside once the 2010s came around, and it's been quite a while since the world has seen a new mainline entry from the series. It's something that hasn't sat well with many racing game fans, especially those who grew up on those games. It's almost baffling that, despite critical and commercial success, the beloved arcade racer seems to be gone for good. It makes you wonder: what exactly happened?

When a huge publisher owns a game studio, the developer doesn't always make its own decisions about what to work on and when to work on it. For example, despite the success of Burnout Paradise, EA — who purchased Criterion back in 2004 — tasked the developer with creating a new entry in the Need for Speed series. Flash forward to EA's press conference at E3 2010, where the publisher announced Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, a back-to-its-roots title featuring some of that much-loved Burnout style and panache.

Touted as a revolutionary entry in the series, Hot Pursuit was met with positive reviews, awards, and more than 5 million units sold in Q3 of 2010 alone. Another game was inevitable at that point. Flash forward again, this time to 2012, when Need for Speed: Most Wanted released to critical acclaim and solid sales. By then, it was pretty obvious that Criterion's focus would be on the Need for Speed series for the foreseeable future, and Burnout was all but burnt out.

In January 2014, just a few months after EA took the majority of Criterion's staff and formed Ghost Games UK, Criterion co-founders Alex Ward and Fiona Sperry announced that they had left to seek other opportunities. After Ward himself announced that Criterion had lost the majority of its staff, the fate of the studio was in limbo for the rest of 2013 and many wondered what the two founders would do. Despite a mention of a new game, known then as "Project Zero," there was no clear path for Ward, Sperry, or Criterion as a whole.

Just two months after Ward and Sperry left, the duo announced their new studio, Three Fields Entertainment. The independent team would quickly go to work on a new IP for Xbox One and PlayStation 4. In 2016, that new IP came to fruition in the form of Dangerous Golf, an arcade golf game with a focus on crazy trick shots and Burnout-like destruction. Even though the game received just average reviews upon release, it helped fund the studio's next game, the car crash title Danger Zone.

After scrapping the racing title in 2016, EA put Criterion right back to work co-developing the Star Wars: Battlefront VR game with DICE. EA released the lengthily-titled Star Wars: Battlefront — Rogue One — X-Wing VR Mission just weeks after the main game dropped in the fall of 2016. Following up its work on that VR mission, the developer once again collaborated with DICE — as well as fellow EA studio Motive —  on Battlefront 2, focusing on the game's space combat.

After successful stints on both Star Wars titles, Criterion continued to work with other EA studios on the publishers biggest titles. Most recently, the developer set out to create Battlefield 5's battle royale mode. Known as Firestorm, the yet-to-be-released mode aims to change the battle royale game through — you guessed it — vehicular combat. 

There's a lot of money to be made when it comes to developing racing games featuring real vehicles from real auto companies. For one, these games are fantastic means of advertising for car manufacturers that want to reach audiences in the digital space. It's such a lucrative advertising tactic that, if an auto company wants a particular car in a game, a studio can charge a pretty penny for that product placement. However, once an agreement like that is in place, the car company has a say in its vehicles' representation.

For example, Need for Speed: Payback partnered with auto companies to feature real-world vehicles. When working with these companies, developer Ghost Games constantly communicated with them, ensuring that crashes and car damage didn't go too far. Said Ghost Games' Bryn Alban to Engadget, "[Automakers] want to make sure the passenger compartment is always a safe place for the passengers to be. We can't have the doors open, and we can't crush the car too much."

It's easy to see why a publisher like EA would want to make a racing-focused Need for Speed game as opposed to something like Burnout. If NFS can make money through automotive partnerships, then why wouldn't those games be in constant development? Burnout wouldn't bring in those brand deals. In fact, in a Fast Company interview from 2017, Ford's licensing manager Mark Bentley explicitly said as much. He stated that the auto manufacturer would never work with a Burnout game because of the series' emphasis on car destruction.

After finishing up its work on Star Wars: Battlefront 2's vehicular combat, Criterion Games began work on a new IP, centered around melee combat. How does the public know about this already? Well, it's thanks to a job listing that popped up on the studio's website in early 2018. The job called for a lead combat designer, someone who was passionate about "all types of combat in games but in particularly melee combat." It went on to mention that the right individual would have a passion for "action and action-adventure games."

The gaming public hasn't heard much about the IP since the news of the job listing broke, but it's something that could excite fans even though its not another Burnout. Criterion has experience developing combat-focused games. The 2006 first-person shooter Black, a departure from the studio's racing titles, released to positive reviews. Also, the team provided support on Battlefield Hardline's multiplayer mode, so it certainly has credibility when it comes to designing combat outside of cars.