History
Criterion Software Ltd was created in 1993 to commercialise 3D graphics rendering technology. It was set up by David Lau-Kee and Adam Billyard within Canon's European Research Lab, before being spun out as a majority Canon-owned startup. Criterion Software was a technology company specialising in the development of the RenderWare family of middleware technology, including graphics, AI, audio and physics components. Originally Criterion Games was a division within Criterion Software, set up to develop games, using the Renderware engine, which would act as show cases as to what was possible with the platform. RenderWare is used in such games as Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which are developed by Rockstar Games, and the successful Burnout series, developed in-house by Criterion Games.
In August 2004, Electronic Arts announced they had acquired Criterion Games and Criterion Software for a rumored GB£40 million, taking into account the purchase price and existing debt. This was followed by the release of Black, a first-person shooter set in Eastern Europe, to which they applied the action movie sensibilities characteristic of the Burnout series.
After the purchase, both Criterion and EA declared that RenderWare would continue to be made available to third party customers. However, some clients decided it was too risky to rely on technology owned by a competitor. EA has since withdrawn RenderWare from the commercial middleware market, although remnants are still used by internal developers.
In the summer of 2006, the company closed its Derby satellite office, making all of its programmers and support staff redundant. In early March 2007, EA combined its Chertsey-based UK development studio and Criterion Games into a new building in central Guildford. Integration of the teams did not occur and the location housed two very separate development studios: Criterion Games and EA Bright Light before Brightlight was shut permanently in 2011. Despite being housed in the same building, Criterion Games still acts entirely independently from the rest of the EA workforce located at Guildford, in fact the only similarity being the use of a small number of shared facilities (entrance, cafeteria & gym for example). Access to Criterion Games is through a further 2nd set of locked doors, after the main building security, requiring special passes to access.
On 14 June 2010, Criterion announced that Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit was set for release in November 2010 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows. The software utilizes a new game engine named Chameleon.
On 1 June 2012, EA announced Need for Speed: Most Wanted only a few days prior to the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2012. Need for Speed: Most Wanted was released on Oct. 30th.
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