What are Criterion Games working on?

I really hope they don't abandon Burnout that would really suck. I like NFS games but they already have a lot of them out there we can take a break from NFS for a few years we need more burnout!

since paradise and NFS:HP and that Arcade Crash game they have not shown anything great since Revenge and that was a poor mans Burnout 3 Takedown.

No-one knows what we're doing yet. Please don't believe everything you read on t'internet.

As for 'most of the original team aren't there' - really not true.

Many people have worked on the games over ten years - but the core group of us remains.

I can't stress that highly enough.

We haven't abandoned anything and why would we? 

Oh, and the open day picture was a grab from Hot Pursuit!

Zombie your not the only one upset about it. I too am very upset that I can no longer play revenge online. I wish it never happened and I was hoping my kids would play it as well. (Hopes and dreams I guess.) For what ever Burnout comes out next I hope to god it is not another Paradise although it was a good games I beat it 100% and memorized the map. After I was done I didn't know what to do. I got fast times I competed but it wasn't the same feeling from Revenge. I want to have my adrenaline fueled rage races. I miss them already and Revenge was the only game ever to get my heart pumping!

1. Crash prizes - news to me. If you can send me the details we can make it happen. It was actually organised by folks in San Francisco - and as I type, Richard F is actively looking into it.

2. Revenge servers closing - I understand the feelings from you guys. But there isn't anything I can do. I know it's a sore subject.

3. Craig's tweet - I think we were planning to make an announcement hence the tweet. We work with huge groups of folks in a huge company. So plans can often change. Those ones did but the tweet was already out there.  We genuinely hate to disappoint any of our fans. You guys might not feel that way - but from our side - we're just super busy. Back to Paradise DLC, we tried to be 100% open with everyone on a day to day basis - but even then our customers seemed just as frustrated at waiting for the content to arrive . So we've adopted a different approach - which is just to be quiet about our software up until the point it is announced or released. Again, sorry if that disappoints people - but we try to do the best we can.

4. Burnout 3 Redux - it was running on iOS at one point a few years ago - compiled at least - but we've not got the resources to do it right now on XBLA or PSN. It would be a huge commitment to do it - for probably not much return - so for now, it's unlikely to ever happen.

Hi Burnoutaholics, it's Rich here from the CRASH! team.

Again, just to reiterate Alex's message, there really is no excuse for not keeping promises to our fans, whoever made them in the first place. Please accept our apologies.

OveReAction and Xandu, please send your details to mailbag@criteriongames.com and we will send you some prizes this week.

We hope you're enjoying the new iOS game!

Rich

Thanks, my details have been sent 

CG staffs Richard and Alex are actually here? That was surprising! I can't believe it! Wow!

P.S.: Just sent the details for the prize.

That reminds me, could you as well re-release Burnout 3 and/or Revenge or remake them as well? I miss playing them...

CrashedAlex wrote:

"4. Burnout 3 Redux - it was running on iOS at one point a few years ago - compiled at least - but we've not got the resources to do it right now on XBLA or PSN. It would be a huge commitment to do it - for probably not much return - so for now, it's unlikely to ever happen."

Kickstarter is all the rage, showing how much support is out there for new versions of really great, timeless games, but I doubt that would work for an EA game. Just need to wait until you get promoted a couple of times and can green light it yourself ;)

With the next gen of console coming who knows how much backwards compatibility XBLA/PSN games will have, there could be an opportunity to take advantage of the new hardware and bring Burnout 3 out on that. So maybe the time will be right in a year or two.

If it makes it any less of a commitment, you could just cut the single player (I can only imagine the work in updating all those crash junctions alone) and make it an online focused game, as that is what we're missing really. We can still go back and enjoy all the single player side of things.

Or bring it out on the PC enabling controller support, then PS and Xbox players could finally battle it out on an even footing using their own pad ;)

Ok so now that things are put out there for why Revenge was shut down is understand able. I love this site for its content and people, you guys are amazing. For me Revenge was a big part of my life. I played it sense Original release on the big black xbox. I hop you guys at CG don't disappoint. I know "WE" (your fans) have been asking for a lot about a new burnout. You at CG know what you are doing and I hope you take what we say into some sort of consideration. Doesn't necessarily need to exactly what we say but maybe some bits here or there. I love you guys and miss Burnout. I beat Paradise 100% and memorized the entire map. I have nothing left to do in that game anymore. I miss my heart beating rapidly when racing online. God bless and thanks for what you guys do! CG will always have my Support! 

While I accept that things have to change (although I dont really accept it!) Am I the only one who dislikes the crash game? It feels like there is no appeal for Burnout racers and I feel that CG is marginalizing us for no real reason. Debate and blogging about a new Burnout has been going on for a long time and there are so many weak features and no shows in Paradise that it feels like we have been passed over in order to develop games that are a wider money maker than games that have the interests of the true fans taken into consideration. There is currently no game that offers the tactile input, aggression and fun that Revenge had and while there are some incidental developments and features in new titles, there is nothing to hold the interest. Saying that there could be a XBLA version in a year or two is spurious at best and for me, only serves as a distractionary excuse to try and keep our frustration at bay. This weekend was awful, looking at my friends list and seeing a lot sitting on the dashboard, trying to find a racer that we could all get involved with. I really miss Revenge, the community and the rooms. 

I may have missed it in the above posts, but what was the real reason for the servers going off? Is it true that EA has a policy that if a game is played by less than 1% of the gaming community, then it is subject to closure?

I personally would not care if a new title was a NFS title, as long as it handled like revenge. There should be no reason why the same physics engine (Renderware) could not be used or updated to include better graphics and leave the handling alone. I think that the visuals are a big part of the appeal of the older games and rendering light dynamics and raytracing water in newer games do not add to the playability. Also, watching a long drawn out crash during a race has to be the worst idea ever made in a racing game. It serves no other purpose than to have the developers pat themselves on the back for including a feature that no racer wants.

I really wanted Paradise to be a replacement, but the handling was awful. The map was fixed(?) so when coming down the map, left was right and vie versa. Terrible. You cant drive of the edge and have the car stay straight, it just flips. Awful. Camera angle behind the car is too low, leaving no view over the roof/bonnet. If you dont drive in the car, you might as well stand up and race. BLEHhhhhh!! Also, unless I have made a mistake, there is no speedometer in Paradise. WTF! Ask any racer and they will tell you that a speedometer is a useful thing to have when driving fast.

I guess there will never be a resolution to this horrible situation, where EA or whoever decided to destroy a long running community just because it didnt` make enough money. I feel cheated. I expect that when I pay for a game that can be played online, it stays online. Not pay for a game that puts money in the pockets of developers who then decided to fuck us over for a contrived reason.

I may be wide of the mark, but lack of transparency over the reasons and any info relative to a new RACING game currently serves only to raise resentment at the people we made money for. Once a company gets too big, it loses sight of why the company was made. Lots of great developer gets swallowed up and pressured into developing in a way that is more a requirement for making money than it is for making great games. Look at the NFS franchise. It was once a great format for racing, now, every tom dick and harry developers are making versions that are liscensed out by the publisher (and we all know how they like to squeeze money out of every gamer) so is it any wonder that we dont take to newer versions that do not have the heart of their predecessors?

NFS The Run is passable, but why include the stupid cut scene interactive GTA rip off ability. It sucks. Dont mess with it. Make a game that has set tracked environments with a few shortcuts and the ability to have up to 10 racers and let us choose how many laps. In fact, just make a new version of Revenge or make a track pack and put the lot on XBLA. You would make a shedload of cash. Maybe that will provide a basis to give the community a reason to believe again.

ANGRYANGRYANGRYANGRYANGRYANGRYANGRYANGRYANGRYANGRYANGRYANGRY

"I guess there will never be a resolution to this horrible situation, where EA or whoever decided to destroy a long running community just because it didnt` make enough money. I feel cheated. I expect that when I pay for a game that can be played online, it stays online. Not pay for a game that puts money in the pockets of developers who then decided to fuck us over for a contrived reason." 

"...60 people"

the fact EA made such a thing about having to use their own serers. Yet if their games ran off xbox servers, which are continually funded as part of the Xbox Live subscription, they wouldn't have to concern themselves with the draining costs of supporting games that lose popularity.

Having the control to kill off old games when new yearly versions come out is a strong business reason for doing it. To gamers though it does seem contrived. More learn each year what to expect from EA servers.

They didn't end up killing Burnout 3, so I have to assume there were still more people playing that, or the Xbox Originals status compelled them to keep them running, as those games were promised to keep all original features.

i shall test this? It's True we can play Revenge again? Thank you EA, MS, Criterion Games, well anyone who may caused this to happen.

Suf

What exactly was the purpose of repeating my post and then putting "60 people"? I can only assume that you are making some form of  rebuttal by way of saying that only 60 people play or there is only a community of 60 Burners. Would that be a correct assumption? Not that I care, but at least back up your comments with something that can be said to be a relative opinion. Where exactly did you get that figure of 60 people from? It should not matter that 6, 60, 600 or 6000 play, (although, admittedly, if 6000 people were on, the servers would not have gone down) we paid to play a game that has online features and to retract that option due to an undisclosed reason (I do not accept what I have heard so far) is a betrayal of the gamer. And more than likely, a breach of terms.

Not wanting to cause any aggro, just want to discuss topics properly. ;)

I will enjoy playing until the next retraction, maybe see you online sometime soon for a race.

I always expect that people are reading all sides of the story, especially those who obviously care so deeply. I should have stated that the "...60 people" quote is from Alex Ward as reported by zombie over here (A blog post that you commented in the day before you wrote this one - but hey it was a long post).

As to the purpose, I was attempting to point out that the vitriol you exhibit towards EA and Criterion was possibly undeserved, but in a succinct way.

So here's an updated revision for you...

"I guess there will never be a resolution to this horrible situation...

Appears that Alex put in a good word for the community and got them to re-enable the server.

...where EA or whoever decided to destroy a long running community just because it didnt` make enough money...

A community that by its own admission has mainly moved away from regularly playing the game, to the point where the stats suggest that it was averaging 60 people per day.

...I feel cheated. I expect that when I pay for a game that can be played online, it stays online...

If you read the back of the Revenge box it says - ""EA may retire online features after 30 days"

...Not pay for a game that puts money in the pockets of developers who then decided to fuck us over for a contrived reason.

I personally think that "fuck us over" is a bit strong after 6 years of online play. And it can hardly be described as a contrived reason to state that they are shutting down a server that is in the bottom 1% when it appears to only have a user base of 60 (this probably puts it more in the 0.01% territory as I'm fairly sure EA have a larger online user base than 6000).

I would also like to point out that your ranting and raving on this subject have had no beneficial effects either to this site itself or the reinitiating of the servers, maybe you would have been better off putting your energies to good use by organising something like the Facebook group, or contacting EA. /Criterion.

My swag from CRASH! High Score Challenge has been received. It's the best thing I have ever obtained! :D