Former Criterion boss clarifies rumors that the studio was asked to make an F-Zero game for Wii U
Posted on 5 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 0 comments
Rumors emerged a few years ago that Criterion was asked to make a new F-Zero game on Wii U for Nintendo. Alex Ward, the studio’s founder who left back in 2014 for his own company Three Fields Entertainment, indicated soon after that the talks weren’t serious. During last week’s episode of the Game Informer Show, he clarified the situation once and for all.
When asked about those original rumors regarding Criterion and F-Zero, Ward stated:
Ex Criterion dev on F-Zero Wii U game – talks weren’t serious, not keen on handling someone else’s IP
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 21 Comments
Yesterday, some news emerged about a potential F-Zero game for Wii U. Nintendo of Europe asked Criterion to work on a pitch for a new entry in the franchise for Nintendo’s console back in 2011, but the studio declined since it was busy bringing Need for Speed: Most Wanted to a number of platforms.
Alex Ward, who was formerly with Criterion, commented on the situation via Twitter yesterday. It seems that talks weren’t far along, which would make sense based on yesterday’s initial report). Ward also indicated that he personally isn’t interested in working on someone else’s IP.
@gfYoshi Doing work for hire has never interested me. It was only an email – nothing more serious. So we had nothing to turn down.
— Alex Ward (@CrashedAlex) June 23, 2015
@DamienMcFerran Working on someone else's IP. Not my idea of fun tbh.
— Alex Ward (@CrashedAlex) June 23, 2015
Alex Ward tweets about problems releasing Need for Speed: Most Wanted U
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 27 Comments
Earlier today we shared a few tweets from Alex Ward. A message published the former Criterion co-founder suggested that he has no interest in supporting Wii U having just created his new company, Three Fields Entertainment.
Additional notes located on Ward’s Twitter account go into detail about the trouble launching Need for Speed: Most Wanted U back when he was with EA. As an example, Ward mentioned that the team working on the game flew to Nintendo “to personally demo a bid” in order to gain marketing support. “There was none,” he said. There were other issues as well, such as EA’s decision not to make Wanted U available in Europe at retail initially.
You’ll find all of the new relevant tweets above.
Former Criterion co-founder yawns at the idea of releasing titles on Wii U/3DS
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News, Wii U | 23 Comments
Alex Ward, one of the co-founders of Criterion, left the studio earlier this year. And just this week, Ward announced that he formed a new company known as “Three Fields Entertainment”.
Three Field’s goal, according to Ward, is to “make games for all platforms where we can self-publish.” One gamer mentioned on Twitter that the team should consider supporting Wii U and 3DS – which would make sense given Nintendo’s extremely open nature towards indie content. However, Ward didn’t seem too interested in doing so.
Check out the exchange between the two above.
Criterion co-founders depart from the studio, start new games company
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 1 Comment
Criterion Games vice president and creative director Alex Ward as well as studio director Fiona Sperry are gone from the company. EA confirmed to Polygon that the two Criterion co-founders “have decided to leave EA.”
A spokesperson said:
“Alex Ward and Fiona Sperry have decided to leave EA. We appreciate their many contributions through the years and wish them well in their future endeavours.
“The incredibly creative and talented team at Criterion are hard at work on a new project for next-gen consoles as new IP continues to be a major priority across EA. Matt Webster is leading development of the new game and the Criterion studio moving forward. Matt has been part of Criterion for years and has an exciting vision for this new game.”
Ward followed up on the news with a confirmation that he and Sperry have formed a new games company:
The news breaks. Along with @FionaSperry I have left @CriterionGames . Welcome to the REAL #tothefuture
— Alex Ward (@AlexanderJWard) January 3, 2014
@davescook Just decided to start afresh and form a new games company with @FionaSperry #freshstart
— Alex Ward (@AlexanderJWard) January 3, 2014
More: Alex Ward, Criterion Games, EA, Fiona Sperry
Criterion toyed around with “Need for Speed: Millionaire” concept
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 1 Comment
Need for Speed… Millionaire? Believe it or not, Criterion did indeed toy around with such a concept.
Criterion creative director Alex Ward revealed the canned idea on Twitter, which was an experiment that came about prior to Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit’s development.
Need for Speed: Millionaire would have allowed players to buy all available Supercars for you and your friends after winning a lottery. Ward said the game “was supposed to be Freeburn meets Top Gear challenges.” It was in a playable state, but Criterion only tried things out for about six months before moving on to Hot Pursuit.
Ward’s tweets in full:
