Want for Pace and Burnout developer Criterion Video games has been moved from EA Sports activities to the EA Leisure, the place it is going to help on upcoming video games within the Battlefield franchise. The transfer comes on the heels of some high-profile departures from Criterion following the discharge of Want for Pace Unbound in late 2022.
Criterion Video games joins the EA Leisure group underneath Respawn Leisure CEO Vince Zampella
Information of the surprising transfer was shared by GamesIndustry.biz, with an EA consultant telling the positioning that no layoffs are deliberate as a part of Criterion Video games’ reshuffled position. The EA Leisure division underneath which Criterion Video games will now be working was fashioned earlier this 12 months after the publishing big cut up the EA Sports activities model from its different gaming properties. As a part of the EA Leisure, Criterion Video games will now be working underneath Respawn Leisure CEO Vince Zampella.
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Explaining the reasoning behind the transfer in a weblog publish on EA’s web site, Zampella states that Criterion Video games will assist usher in a “new period for the [Battlefield] franchise.” The vast majority of Criterion’s workers might be working with different EA studios like DICE because the writer begins pre-production on what it describes as a “linked Battlefield Universe.” Along with engaged on upcoming Battlefield titles, Criterion will even present help with ongoing updates to Battlefield 2042. Whereas a lot of the staff will now be tasked with engaged on the Battlefield franchise, Zampella’s publish notes that work will nonetheless proceed on new Want for Pace video games.
Whereas Criterion is most well-known for its work on the Want for Pace and Burnout franchises, the developer is not any stranger to the Battlefield collection. In 2021 the studio was tapped to help EA DICE on the event of Battlefield 2042, resulting in a year-long delay for Want for Pace Unbound. Transferring such a high-profile developer to its army shooter collection is in step with statements made by EA in 2022 indicating that the writer was taking a “lengthy view” of the Battlefield franchise following what some followers have decried as a drastic drop in high quality for current entries.