What is going on at Criterion? A speculative guide ~ MITV Blog

Yesterday, Criterion showcased its top secret new project to the EA’s new CEO, Andrew Smith.

No-one outside the studio exactly what it is, but we do know it’s certainly not a new Burnout or another shooter, like PS2 title Black; the ‘new‘ Criterion is smaller (currently just 17 people), developing something entirely new and working “in a totally different way”.

It has become EA’s own game ideas incubator, and Criterion staff now refer to each other as Team Zero – the vast majority of the people at old Criterion having moved on to work at Ghost, on Need For Speed Rivals. It is fully future-facing, and wants to release smaller games more regularly and wants them to reach the widest audience possible. It is prototyping new game ideas in Unity, and could use DICE’s Frostbite engine for its next game. It’s also fascinated by new tech; staffers love the potential of Kinect and have been playing around with Oculus Rift. Its forthcoming projects will be digital-only, socially connected and dynamic – scripted in-game events are considered old hat. We could see the fruits of this new way of working next year, and certainly won’t see anything in 2013.

That is, at least, the sum of what we can ascertain from a little internet detective work. Criterion’s parent company EA has been in media blackout mode on what the studio is doing next, so it falls to Criterion staffers’ Twitter accounts to fill in the blanks. This is what we can glean from the tweets of creative director Alex Ward, studio director Fiona Sperry, and others at the ‘new’ studio.