Burnout Spiritual Successor Teased by Criterion Founders

The two founders of Criterion Games, developer of the Burnout series, have teased the possibility of a spiritual successor to the popular racing game series.

Three Fields Entertainment, a studio founded last year by Criterion founders Alex Ward and Fiona Sperry, sent out tweets this week that sound promising for Burnout fans who aren't especially attached to the Burnout name. "Two things. Our first game is a multiplayer sports game. Coming Spring 2016. Then we make a driving game," the first tweet reads.

"What sort of driving game you ask? A spiritual successor. Speed. Traffic. And crashing. Lots and lots of crashing," the second adds, clearly referencing Burnout, which was famous for its crashes.

The various entries in the Burnout series--of which there are four main games--were fairly different from each other. This raises the question of which game this new one would follow in the footsteps of. Three Fields itself seems uncertain.

"Spiritual successor to which one though??? The second, the third, or the fourth one??" a final tweet reads.

Setting aside the fact that Burnout 3: Takedown is the correct answer, it's encouraging news that the Burnout series could continue in some form. EA doesn't seem to have pursued the possibility much in the seven years since Paradise, with the only new Burnout being small, downloadable spinoff Burnout Crash.

Criterion shifted from working on Burnout to take over the Need for Speed series in 2009. In 2013, most of Criterion's staff was moved over to Ghost Games to continue focusing on NFS, leaving Criterion with a relatively low headcount. Ward and Sperry left the studio not long after.

Criterion still exists and is working on new projects. Those apparently don't include a Burnout HD collection, a possibility the studio recently shot down.