Kotaku - I thought I was on another planet on Wednesday when I saw Alex Ward for the first time in five years.
This was Criterion's Alex Ward, the developer of a game studio that pushes gaming hardware to the brink and that hasn't made a game for Nintendo in 10 years. He was saying nothing but glowing things about the Wii U.
Which game creators, other than people who work at Nintendo, say glowing things about the Wii U these days?
Ward was pit-stopping in New York City, en route from his studio's offices in Guildford, England to Nintendo's in Seattle. He was on his way to show Nintendo the March-scheduled Wii U version of the excellent Need For Speed: Most Wanted. He consented to show it to some reporters while he was on his way. I was one of them and was waiting for him at an EA showcase on the fourth floor of a hotel in midtown Manhattan.
After nearly three decades of NFS games, here's a list of the best Need For Speed titles that have ever been released in the past years, ranked by The Nerd Stash.
Need for Speed: Most Wanted debuted in 2005, with the Xbox 360 version being the first then next-generation title in the franchise.
This game was awesome! I remember reloading my save if I didn’t get the pink slip from my blacklist rival
There has been significant changes at EA's Criterion studio following the departure of five of its longest-serving leaders.
Matt Webster, VP and GM of Criterion, has left the studio. Webster has been with Criterion for over 23 years, and has been working for EA since 1990. He was part of the initial team responsible for the first FIFA game.
Also departing is executive producer Pete Lake, who first joined Criterion back in 1996 as an artist. He leaves alongside senior technical director Andrei Shires, a 16-year Criterion veteran. Head of studio development Alan McDairmant is also moving on after 17 years with EA, while Steve Uphill, head of content, leaves following his latest 10-year stint with the developer. All five have left to "explore new opportunities outside of EA", and comes after the release of Need for Speed Unbound.
MOST of the OG devs left years ago. They are now at Media Molecule or Hello Games.
Burnout hasn't has a game for over a decade we need to get over it. For most of the last 20 years, Criterion has been nothing but a support studio, providing assistance on the crappy driving sections of Battlefield games. They're dead, long gone.
5 or 6 years ago at E3 they announced a new Criterion racing IP but this bellend of a CEO has destroyed the work John Riccitiello did to try and restore what little reputation EA had.
Im not surprised. The game debut at #17 on the UK game charts. It seems the people they let go were long term and senior employees. NFS unbound felt rushed. It a good game here but EA clearly rushed the title out. There was very little marketing and the game itself is lacking features that were in previous games. EA is to blame for this game failure, not Criterion.
The lack of sales could be the whole urban hip-hop, and cartoony characters designs. Two reason why I didn't buy the game.
Same here. Just not my thing. I’ll play it when it gets on EA pass or whatever it’s called.
The way the game looks graphically would be my issue. Weird cel shade look to it. Big eh
Nothing wrong with the theme its Need for Speed after all. Least they tried something different instead of the standard. I think it looked good. Haven't got it yet though, waiting on a price decrease.
The lack of sales could be ASAP Rocky's pending criminal court case and 0 advertising from EA that the game is out lol
Not to mention the NFS brand no longer carries weight.
It's a name that use to mean you were about to experience the next best racing game after the last NFS game blew your mind, and it kept going for over a decade until the wheels fell off and the franchise lost its way (you can thank EA for that one).
Now, if there's even an ounce of enjoyment in a new game, hardly anyone will want to try it because they got burned by one too many mediocre entries.
Someone will come along to fill the void eventually. Bugbear (creators of Wreckfest) would probably make a great fast paced destructive car game like Burnout.
There is a market for what Burnout did.
Again, I think I have Definitively proven-
-That The Trolls on the N4G are to be trusted over the Illuminati & Alien Mind-Controlled game developers.
Just ask Abraham Lincoln ;)
yeah no kidding, but i thought all the third parties hated nintendo and complained about cancelled games, like need for speed most wanted and monster hunter 3 ultimate, oh wait... and did any one show proof of actual names of companies and what games were cancelled? no? how odd? no proof that these companies said this? yeah another lie from the biased media against nintendo, some one call frodo and gandolf, we have got to get rid of all these trolls.
"Everyone wants to talk about this and that on the hardware, and it's not as interesting to me. What's really important is what we're doing with the player experience. The games I'm playing on Wii U—Nintendo Land and New Super Mario Bros. U—what Nintendo [does], they just deliver excellent gameplay. It's probably one of the big problems in the industry at the moment. Everyone—you guys—like to talk about specs and this and that. We've got to get back to just playing the game. And that's what this game is about. It's about a simple, fun experience. It's not about 10,000,000 polygons and who does this and who does that.''
Alex Ward.
and check this out http://mynintendonews.com/2... yes, a game maker with brains, if only the rest of third party would think with their brains, you don't need ten million polygons to make a great game, it's refreshing to hear a game developer talk like that.
The Wii U is a great system. The price is a bit high though, the wii casuals are used to lower prices. It will happen. X box ps4 come out, wiiu drops in price, Nintnedo hits the air waves with heavy marketing... games arrive. I think it will shape up well.