Criterion Games is a British video game developer located in Guildford. It was started in January 1996 as part of Criterion Software and was owned by Canon Inc. until Criterion Software was bought by Electronic Arts in October 2004. Many games made by the studio used the RenderWare engine, which Criterion Software created.

Important games made by Criterion include titles from the Burnout and Need for Speed series of racing games. As of April 2017, Criterion Games has about 90 employees.

History

David Lau-Kee, who led Canon Inc.'s European research team, started Criterion Software as a company owned entirely by Canon in December 1993. He became the managing director of the new company. At that time, Canon wanted to create a business focused on multimedia tools, while Lau-Kee had been working on ways to process 2D images and wanted to expand this to 3D images and full 3D graphics. Adam Billyard, who was the chief technology officer, is also considered a co-founder of the company.

Criterion Software created a program called RenderWare, which helped with 3D textures and graphics. It was first released in 1993 as a tool for the C programming language. By October 1996, 800 companies worldwide used RenderWare. The company also made a demo game called CyberStreet, while other companies like 47Tek used RenderWare to create full games. A competing company, Argonaut Software, developed full games, such as FX Fighter and Alien Odyssey, to show off its own technology called BRender. In response, Criterion Software hired new workers in 1995 to create a team focused on game development. To support this growth, the company moved to new offices in Guildford in late 1995. A new team, called Criterion Studios, was formed in January 1996 and announced the same month. At first, the team had 25 people, and by October, the number grew to about 35.

RenderWare was later changed to better support game development. The third version, released in 2000, included full game engine features. The first game to use this version was Burnout, which Criterion Studios developed. Acclaim Entertainment bought the rights to publish Burnout (2000) and its sequel, Burnout 2: Point of Impact (2002), which sold about 2 million copies. However, Acclaim struggled to sell the games in the United States, its main market. Meanwhile, Criterion Studios (now called Criterion Games) was approached by Electronic Arts (EA), which eventually signed a deal to make the third game in the Burnout series, Burnout 3: Takedown (2004).

In July 2004, EA announced it had agreed to buy Criterion Software, including Criterion Games, from Canon Europe. The deal was completed on October 19, 2004, with EA paying US$68 million. After the purchase, both EA and Criterion said RenderWare would still be available to other companies. However, some customers stopped using it because they worried about relying on technology owned by a competitor. EA later stopped selling RenderWare to outside companies, though some parts of the technology were still used internally. In mid-2006, EA closed its office in Derby, leaving all workers there without jobs.

In early March 2007, EA combined its UK development studio in Chertsey with Criterion Games, moving them to a new building in Guildford. The teams remained separate, with Criterion Games and EA Bright Light operating in the same location until Bright Light closed in 2011. In November 2007, David Lau-Kee, a co-founder and CEO of Criterion, left EA to focus on advisory work in the games industry. Adam Billyard also left EA in 2007 to work on other projects.

In June 2010, Criterion announced that Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit would be released in November 2010. The game used a new engine called Chameleon. In June 2012, EA announced Criterion’s next Need for Speed game, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, which was released in October 2012. At the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2012, Criterion Games said it would be the sole owner of the Need for Speed franchise.

In April 2013, Alex Ward, a leader at Criterion, said via Twitter that the studio would stop making racing games and instead focus on other types of games. In September 2013, Criterion reduced its staff to 17 people, with 70 employees moving to Ghost Games UK to work on Need for Speed games.

In January 2014, Alex Ward and Fiona Sperry left Criterion to start a new studio, Three Fields Entertainment. Their first game, Dangerous Golf, was planned for release in May 2016. At the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2014, the company announced a new racing project, but it was later canceled as Criterion shifted focus to helping other EA studios create Star Wars games. Criterion worked on Star Wars Battlefront: X-Wing VR Mission, a virtual reality mission for Star Wars Battlefront, and later did additional work for the 2017 sequel.

In 2015, Nintendo Life reported that Nintendo of Europe had approached Criterion in 2011 to create a new F-Zero game for the Wii U console. However, Criterion could not take the project because it was focused on making Need for Speed: Most Wanted for multiple platforms. Alex Ward, who had left Criterion in 2014, confirmed the report on Twitter. He also mentioned that Criterion had been offered opportunities to work on the first Forza game, a Mad Max game, a Vauxhall-only racer, a Command & Conquer first-person shooter, and a Gone in 60 Seconds game.

In 2018, EA announced that Battlefield V would include a battle royale mode developed by Criterion. The mode, later named Firestorm, was canceled after release due to poor reception. In 2020, Criterion returned as the main developer of the Need for Speed series, but work was paused as Criterion was assigned to help with Battlefield 2042, which was released in November 2021.

In May 2022, EA merged Codemasters Cheshire, a subsidiary of Codemasters, into Criterion Games to support the Need for Speed series. In October 2022, the project was revealed as Need for Speed Unbound, which used DICE’s Frostbite engine. Unbound was released in December 2022, after which five senior members of Criterion, including the studio’s general manager, Matt Webster, left to form Fuse Games in 2023.

In early 2023, Criterion was placed under EA Sports during EA’s restructuring. However, in September 2023, EA moved Criterion to EA Entertainment to support Battlefield development. It was reported that Criterion would continue making Need for Speed games but shifted focus to Battlefield 6. In August 2025, EA officially changed the studio’s name to “Criterion – A Battlefield Studio,” marking its new focus on Battlefield games.

Accolades

In 2017, 2018, and 2019, GamesIndustry.biz recognized Criterion Games as one of the best places to work in the UK video games industry. The company was included in the "Best Mid-sized Companies" category during these years.