Vince Zampella: Last News

Criterion, the developer of Need For Speed, has been brought on board the Battlefield series by publisher Electronic Arts.The developer, based in Guildford in the United Kingdom, has joined DICE, Ridgeline and Ripple Effect as the teams that are working on constructing a “connected Battlefield Universe”.Electronic Arts had revealed that the next Battlefield game would be a “reimagination” of the series following the chaotic launch and support for Battlefield 2042 from 2021 onwards.The reallocation of Criterion, though, will engender “an immediate positive impact” on Battlefield 2042 and pre-production on the next title.“Criterion has a rich history in gaming, having worked on Battlefield, Battlefront, Burnout, and of course, Need for Speed. I’m thrilled to have a studio with such pedigree join the studios I oversee,” shared Vince Zampella, Respawn Entertainment founder and EA Entertainment general manager, in a post to Electronic Arts’ blog.Criterion Games contributed to the development of Battlefield 5 and Battlefield 2042 but its most recent release was Need For Speed Unbound. This entry was the first game that Criterion was credited as the core developer since Most Wanted in 2012.The last “volume” of downloadable content for that game arrived in August, adding a custom Porsche 911 Carrera S and Porsche Taycan Turbo S to celebrate of the 75th anniversary of the manufacturer.Zampella addressed the future of Need For Speed in the announcement, however, did not offer any specifics.

EA CEO Andrew Wilson has shared that Call Of Duty becoming an Xbox-exclusive series would be a “tremendous opportunity” for EA’s Battlefield series.As Microsoft‘s acquisition of Activision Blizzard continues, the purchase has come under scrutiny over the possibility of Microsoft potentially making Call Of Duty an Xbox-exclusive. While Microsoft says it will continue to launch Call Of Duty on PlayStation, PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan has slammed Microsoft’s three-year offer as “inadequate on many levels.” Speaking at last week’s Communacopia + Technology conference (via Gamespot), Wilson addressed the speculation surrounding Call Of Duty‘s future.“In a world where there may be questions over the future of Call Of Duty and what platforms that might be on or might not be on, being platform agnostic and completely cross-platform with Battlefield, I think is a tremendous opportunity,” reflected Wilson.However, Wilson also acknowledged that EA’s latest Battlefield releases haven’t lived up to players’ expectations. “I don’t think we delivered in the last two iterations of that in the way that we should have,” said Wilson.

EA has removed the community-created zombie survival mode from Battlefield 2042 due to issues with XP farming.The change was confirmed by Ripple Effect Studios (formerly DICE LA) senior design director Justin Wiebe on Twitter, who said the mode had an issue with “standard game progression.”​​”We’ve removed the Zombies mode and replaced it with Gun Game,” wrote Wiebe. “Hopefully we can fix it in the future and keep it in alignment with standard game progression.