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[IbizaPocholo]

Former Criterion leaders set-up new AAA games studio Fuse Games

EA veterans will open its office in Guildford, UK

www.gamesindustry.biz

The veterans who left Need for Speed developer Criterion in December last year have reunited to form a new AAA studio: Fuse Games.

The new outfit has been founded by studio general manager Matt Webster, head of content Steve Uphill, head of production Pete Lake, head of technology Andrei Shires, and head of operations Alan McDairmant.

The team is in the process of finding an office in Guildford, and will adopt a hybrid working approach. Its first game will be a AAA console and PC release, and when asked if it'll match the games Criterion is famous for – racing titles such as Burnout and Need for Speed – Webster isn't giving anything away.

"Even our recent history spans a few things," Webster reminds us. "Obviously arcade racers and open world racers are what we know very deeply. But we have played around in other genres over the years, including Battlefront, Battlefield… VR. We know what we are good at, and that spans a broad range of things now. Once we select our genre, we want to lead that genre."

The team currently consists of 17 people and the plan is to scale that up, although Webster isn't certain on what that final number will look like.

"We've been fortunate enough to work on games that have spanned the whole gamut," Webster continues. "We know what it's like to have a small group spinning up something new, to have multiple hundreds of people on a huge development. We will end up being somewhere in-between."

 

[TrebleShot]

Playstation is crying out for an arcade style Horizon knock off, do it and we shall all be very grateful.

 

[Drizzlehell]

 

[Roxkis_ii]

As long as their next racer doesn't have limited retries, I may be interested.

 

[XTERC]

Not a single mention of RenderWare? As an outsider looking in it felt like NFS killed this studio. Does anyone remember their podcasts during the Burnout Paradise days?

 

[dezzy8]

I don’t mean to derail this thread, but this made me think of Bizarre Creations. Did the people from there ever form a new studio?

 

[CGNoire]

Who cares?
These are not in anyway likely to be the ones who worked on your favorite Criterion games of the past.

 

[Zephyrus0]

Playstation is crying out for an arcade style Horizon knock off, do it and we shall all be very grateful.

Personally I'm crying way more for the lack of a motorstorm like game.
I'll never forgive sony for killing off evolution. Motorstorm and Driveclub were amazing. Nothing polyphony digital did ever reached their highs.
It's criminal what happened to evolution studios.

 

[Topher]

Seems like every year a group of "former Criterion" devs are creating new studios.

 

[ReBurn]

I don’t mean to derail this thread, but this made me think of Bizarre Creations. Did the people from there ever form a new studio?

Lucid Games

 

[Spyxos]

As long as they do not do something like this again.

 

[lh032]

Hermen, your move.

 

[Kuranghi]

These people made all the worst NFS games and none of the Burnout games you think of when you hear the name.

Fiona Sperry and Alex Ward (the actual people who made the good Burnout and NFS games we love) formed Three Fields Entertainment and while they haven't had a hit yet you can tell the heart is there but the tech and budget is lacking.

Funnily enough their best game they've released by far is Dangerous Golf, not a racing game at all, I recommend a go of it if you haven't played it. Performance is spotty without a super recent and powerful CPU due to the physics stuff going on and a big GPU is required to brute force it to run at res higher than 1440p. Accept its a crusty game and try it regardless of graphics.

PM if you are like wtf is going on I don't understand how to play this and I'll explain it in a paragraph or two, the in-game tutorial is rubbish and I had to work most of it out myself. It's super addictive once you get into it.

 

[NickFire]

Best of luck to anyone starting a new company. But save the AAA label until an AAA games out.

 

[CamHostage]

Fiona Sperry and Alex Ward (the actual people who made the good Burnout and NFS games we love) formed Three Fields Entertainment and while they haven't had a hit yet you can tell the heart is there but the tech and budget is lacking.

That team also have a "sequel" to Dangerous Driving which has become the new game Wreckreation for publisher THQ Nordic. We'll see how that goes, with that thing seems incredibly big for a little development team that previously struggled financially to deliver a Burnout clone (and also the rollercoaster stunt stuff and level modification features are apparently glued on top of the same level they were making for Dangerous Driving 2, aka their Burnout Paradise clone,) but maybe they'll have the money and backing now to make this work?

These people made all the worst NFS games and none of the Burnout games you think of when you hear the name.

Which... yeah, I still hold out hope for Criterion releases or spin-off team projects and am sometimes rewarded for my curiosity and investment, but the 2000s were a long time ago. Don't expect every time "Criterion" or "former Criterion" is in a headline that maybe the Burnout of your dreams will be magically realized.

 

[In Cold Blood]

See you in 2030

 

[March Climber]

This game, Back 4 Blood, and Callisto Protocol have made me cautious to the phrase 'from the creators of _____'