Tag Archives: alex ward

Further to news that Criterion Games is not, in fact, making a Need for Speed Underground reboot, studio boss Alex Ward has revealed while he, personally won’t be making another racing game, that he wasn’t speaking on behalf of the whole team.

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Need for Speed: Underground was rumoured to be getting the reboot treatment under Criterion Games, following an alleged logo leak last week. We called it out as bollocks at the time, but now the studio has performed its own t-bone takedown on the rumour over Twitter.

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Need For Speed: Most Wanted is hitting Wii U in March 14th, and the developer has confirmed that it will trump the PS3 and Xbox 360 build in the technical department. It’s based on the PC version, you see?

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Need for Speed: Most Wanted follows the same open world format as the original game, and this was the only option, Criteron’s vice president Alex Ward has explained, despite his fears that people didn’t ‘get’ Burnout Paradise’s open world setting.

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Need For Speed: Most Wanted is shaping up nicely, with a massive city to tear around, plenty of Frostbite 2 destruction, and a highly competitive multiplayer offering. VG247′s Sam Clay talks with Criterion Games creative director Alex Ward to find out why he feels the studio now owns the Need For Speed series.

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Criterion vice president Alex Ward has said the firm will helm the Need for Speed franchise going forward.

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Criterion boss Alex Ward has said that Burnout Crash had started life as a Wii title.

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This came from left-field: the Australian Classification Board has rated something known as “Burnout Crash,” whilst LinkedIn CVs point towards a PS3 and 360 release.

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Grasshopper boss Goichi Suda has a new favourite games designer. It’s Criterion games boss Alex Ward.

“I have four favorite game designers,” Suda told 1UP. “Erik [Chahi, Out of This World creator] is one of them. I’m not sure if he’s the number one, but he’s one of them.

“There used to be three, but the fourth person is [Criterion Games'] Alex Ward, who I added after I met him recently.”

Suda’s went on to say that he would most likely end up “enjoying” working with Chahi or Ward, should the opportunity arise.

TGS, TGS, TGS.

Criterion’s Alex Ward just dropped a less than subtle hint on the direction of the developer’s Need for Speed project.

“‘Red lining it all the way and making it pay’ – a return to the original 3DO version of The Need for Speed,” tweeted the boss.

EA boss John Riccitiello confirmed in June that the studio was now working on a “revolutionary” new Need for Speed game, following many months of rumours.

This probably means it’s going to be awesome. Although there was never much doubt about that.

Criterion’s Alex Ward just tweeted that Grasshopper legend Suda51 is a Burnout Paradise mentalist.

“Suda51 came here for the day a few weeks ago,” said the dev boss.

“He’s a hardcore Burnout fan. I checked the servers – over 700hrs play.”

That’s a lot of hours. Just goes to show.

John Riccitiello has confirmed that Criterion is working on a “revolutionary” new Need for Speed game.

The Burnout team, led by Alex Ward, has been shifted to the series for the time being and the EA bossman seems pleased with the switch.

“Alex is one of the people in the industry I would analogize to the great filmmakers etc.,” Riccitiello told Kotaku. “He is a true creative visionary.

“We had a great fight about what the next Need For Speed would be like. Of course, he gets to win because it’s his call. It’s not that I’m without an opinion on it.”

When asked if the Need for Speed and Burnout franchises would ever merge, Riccitiello said it wan’t likely and compared such an event to merging Star Trek with Star Wars.

“I don’t think you can fold Burnout into Need for Speed, because a lot of people like Burnout,” he said. “We don’t have a plan right now for a separate major launch on Burnout, because the team doing it is working on a revolutionary take on Need for Speed.”

More through the link.

Criterion’s Alex Ward just got in touch to clarify some comments he made on the company forums about Burnout Paradise DLC last night. We ran a story with the headline, “Criterion confirms all Burnout Paradise DLC will be free“: it appears we jumped the gun a bit.

“I stated yesterday that access to the new downloadable islands in Burnout Paradise would be free,” Ward told videogaming247. “That’s not to say ALL of the downloadable content we are working on will be free. We will charge (price TBC) for some stuff. What’s important to know is that we see DLC in a totally different way. So far, with many games, DLC has been secondary ‘extras’ type stuff, a different costume in an RPG, a different car in a racing game, and so on. We see DLC as significant additional content which expands the game experience. We see it as continuing to develop the game which we worked on. Taking it further almost to the point of making a new game.

“New game modes are very important to us, but it’s about more than that. Expect more details soon, I’d love to say more but we’re still working on this stuff.”

We stand corrected. And excited. Corrected and excited all at once.

Criterion’s Alex Ward has posted on the developer’s forum that all the previously announced DLC islands for Burnout Paradise will be free. Ward had previously said that the upcoming liveries would arrive without charge. In a word, awesome. Hopefully we’ll have more on this next week.

Criterion’s Alex Ward has confirmed that upcoming DLC for Burnout Paradise is going to be extensive stuff.

“Up until today, players thought that the bridge led to Paradise Airport to be revealed in DLC,” he told videogaming247. “Today we announce that the bridge leads to one of a planned SERIES of Islands being ADDED to Paradise City, and each will offer DIFFERENT gameplay.”

Criterion showed of a new car for Burnout Paradise earlier today as well. Hopefully we’ll get more on the new content next week.

Speaking to videogaming247, Criterion’s Alex Ward has revealed some fairly startling stats about the current state of online play in smash-racer Burnout Paradise.

“In the past 24 hours we’ve had 50,000 people play Burnout Paradise online on both systems,” said Ward. “If they only stayed online for one hour each on average (and most stayed for more than that), there will be have been over FIVE AND A HALF YEARS of play online in Paradise City in the last 24 hours.”

Ward also revealed a new, free car livery for the game tonight, which he described as “coming soon”, and hinted at big plans for upcoming downloadable content.

“We’re working on some incredible new content for Paradise, some of which we’ve announced, and some of which we haven’t,” he said.

Criterion’s Alex Ward’s just posted first movies of a new car livery for Burnout Paradise on the developer’s blog. We’ve put one below, but there are two more through the link.

“We’re working on some incredible new content for Paradise, some of which we’ve announced, and some of which we haven’t,” said Ward. “Today, we wanted to give you a sneak preview of one of the amazing new car liveries coming soon in the game. We’ll be revealing more over the next few days and weeks.”

We’re playing Paradise at the moment and it’s all good, so news of extra content makes us smile. Check out the movies.

Update: Just so you know, Ward just told us there’ll be no charge for the liveries.