Criterion takes control of Need for Speed franchise

Studio will be involved in all future Need for Speed titles - dev hasn't forgotten about Burnout.

Criterion has revealed that it has taken control of the Need for Speed franchise, with studio vice president Alex Ward revealing the studio's future involvement to Game Informer.

"Our stamp's going to be in everything you see in Need for Speed and Burnout going forward in the future," said Ward. "It's not going to be spread anymore across different companies. Different studios have had a crack at it - it's definitely a Criterion gig now.

"Going forward now, with Most Wanted and what we'll do in the future [will have], shall we say, a strong Criterion involvement," he added. "I'm personally involved in how the cars drive, how the game will play out, how connected they are, and what the features are."

Ward's statement doesn't sound like Criterion will be developing every game in the series, but instead having some involvement. It's not clear what the future holds for the Shift series, but Ward would like to see a single title that includes all the NFS titles.

"I think it would be amazing in the future if there was one big game that had all of these in it. That would be amazing."

How Criterion is going to be able to handle this amount of work remains to be seen, with Ward adding that "something big will have to happen soon to enable us to do some of the things we want to do".

Could that "something big" be EA Gothenburg? Ward has confirmed that he is working on a secret project with the new EA studio.