Criteon Veterans Form New AAA Studio Fuse Games - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 16 March 2023 / 2,526 Views
Veterans who used to work at Need for Speed developer Criterion have formed a new AAA studio called Fuse Games and is based in Guildford, UK. Its first game will be a AAA game for consoles and PC.
The studio was founded by studio general manager Matt Webster, head of content Steve Uphill, head of production Pete Lake, head of technology Andrei Shires, and head of operations Alan McDairmant. All five left Criterion last December.
The team current has 17 people with plans to scale up overtime. It will be adopting a hybrid working approach with working from home and at the office.
"Even our recent history spans a few things," Webster told GamesIndustry. "Obviously arcade racers and open world racers are what we know very deeply. But we have played around in other genres over the years, including Battlefront, Battlefield… VR. We know what we are good at, and that spans a broad range of things now. Once we select our genre, we want to lead that genre.
"We've been fortunate enough to work on games that have spanned the whole gamut. We know what it's like to have a small group spinning up something new, to have multiple hundreds of people on a huge development. We will end up being somewhere in-between."
Webster joined Electronic Arts when he was 18 and worked there for 32 years. He has worked on Madden, Desert Strike, Theme Park, and Syndicate before joining Criterion in 2004.
"I love EA," said Webster. "I learnt everything there. I celebrated a milestone birthday last summer, and – as you do as you get older – I started to think about what's next? For me, it was the 'what if?' What if I did this? There was this opportunity, and I am glad I didn't talk myself out of it this time.
"It was bloody hard [to leave]. I started at Electronic Arts in September 1990, and there was only 35 of us in the whole of Europe. We were making it up as we went along, really. That was great fun. I've made great friends, had great experiences and made great memories at EA.
"I had a romantic attachment to Electronic Arts and the idea of electronic artists. The reality is that there are extraordinary talented people there, and I wish the external perception of that company would match the internal reality. But it is what it is, and now I am looking forward to having new experiences outside of it."
Fuse Games hopes to be able to develop games quickly, but without crunch.
"Our aim is to get a game out there as quickly and as healthily as we can," Webster added.
"If games take two or three years to make, then there's only a limited number we can make in our lifespan. If we keep making five to seven-year opuses, we can only make a few. And I want to make as many as I can."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
