Creative director of Criterion Alex Ward has revealed that the studio is down to just 16 people now, the majority of the company has been moved to create Ghost Games UK who are developing Need for Speed: Rivals.
The information was revealed on Alex Wards Twitter account in a series of tweets (thanks to VideoGamer for the links). After Ghost Games were handed control over the Need for Speed license it seems that 60-65 people were moved from Criterion to form Ghost Games UK, who will help Ghost Games develop NFS: Rivals.
Unfortunately we do not know what Criterion are currently working on but Alex Ward has hinted that there will be another Burnout game in the future, maybe Criterion have future plans for the series! While it is a shame that the company is only down to 16 people, it doesn’t seem that they are being left to die. Once NFS: Rivals is finished I am sure that a lot of the staff will move back to Criterion and help develop their game.
Let me know in the comments what you think about this, do you think this is signalling the imminent end of Criterion or do you think it is just a temporary thing while they aren’t in full game development mode?
