Five long-time developers have left Criterion Games following the release of Need For Speed: Unbound and Electronic Arts has appointed new leaders to lead the franchise.

Matt Webster, Criterion’s vice president and general manager had been with the studio for 23 years and had worked for Electronic Arts since 1990. He worked on the company’s first FIFA game. Pete Lake joined the studio in 1996 as an artist and left his executive producer behind. Andrei Shires departs after 16 years (he was a senior technical director), and Alan McDairman (the head of studio development) has spent 17 years at EA. Steve Uphill (head of content) spent ten years at Criterion. They are all “exploring opportunities outside Electronic Arts” after leaving the studio and the launch of Need For Speed: Unbound.

David Rutter, director of racing games at Electronic Arts, has appointed Charity Joy as the executive producer of Need For Speed. She comes over from EA Sports’ UFC franchise. Geoff Smith will abandon his oversight of Codemasters’ Dirt and Grid games to be the senior product development director for Need For Speed. He will report directly to Joy while overseeing Electronic Arts’ WRC game until its spring launch. The duo will work with Steve Cuss (he’s Criterion’s head of operations and reports to Rutter, so Joy – Rutter – Cuss is the hierarchy from top to bottom).

“It’s now been one year since the talented teams at Codemasters and Criterion officially came together as one unified force, driving the future of racing entertainment. This is a fascinating time for our group following the recent launch of Need for Speed Unbound (which is being hailed as having opened a new era for the franchise), the successful release of F1 22 earlier this year, and significant progress on the development of WRC.

As we look ahead, we know there’s a solid opportunity to evolve our games and experiences and bring them to an even broader audience of fans – with our long-term strategy centered on our strengths in licensed motorsports and arcade/open-world racing. Building off the progress made so far this year, with two launches and even more plans underway for next, we are confident that we have the best people, working on the best games, and will achieve great things in 2023,” Rutter wrote in his letter.

The only problem with that is that Criterion has lost its veterans.

Source: Gamesindustry