EA combines Criterion and Codemasters Cheshire to make new Need for Speed games

Electronic Arts has merged Codemasters’ Cheshire studio with Criterion Games to create a larger team to work on the future of the Need for Speed series, GamesIndustry.biz revealed Thursday.

This follows EA’s 2021 acquisition of Codemasters, though it’s only the Cheshire studio that’s merging with Criterion. Codemasters maintains multiple other offices that will continue to work on games like the upcoming F1 22.

The Cheshire studio came about after Sony shut down Evolution Studios in early 2016. Codemasters hired the team, which had developed the MotorStorm series and DriveClub, and turned it into Codemasters Cheshire. In 2020, the Cheshire team released Dirt 5, which many critics said felt like a modern version of MotorStorm, and cited as one of the best games to show off the then-new PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X hardware.

According to the Codemasters Twitter account, the studio merger will not mean that the two studios are combining offices, but that they will work together in separate locations.