Earlier in the week, it was reported that UK developer Criterion was approached by Nintendo in 2011, and the possibility of producing a demo for a new F-Zero game in time for Wii U’s big reveal at E3 was on the cards. Sadly, this never came to fruition, and Criterion founder Alex Ward has been quick to respond to the story on Twitter.
His Tweet seemed to dismiss the story as little more than a pipe dream, and was simply one of many projects that were pitched to the Burnout creators.
Must be a slow news day. Other “bullets” we dodged before 2005 – Forza 1, Mad Max, a Vauxhall only racer, C&C branded FPS, Gone in 60s game.
— Alex Ward (@CrashedAlex) June 23, 2015
When Ward was then told about the momentum this story had gained since it broke, and how much fans of both racing series would have loved to have seen the end result of a Burnout/F-Zero collaboration, his response was equally underwhelming.
@DamienMcFerran Working on someone else’s IP. Not my idea of fun tbh.
— Alex Ward (@CrashedAlex) June 23, 2015
Fellow Twitter users were quick to point out to Ward that Criterion had worked on several Need for Speed games which, in fact, was not the studio’s own IP either, so why would F-Zero be any different? However, he added that technically the NFS games were a company owned IP, so in reality it was. He also went on to express his frustration in having no control over the projects he and his team could work on after EA purchased Criterion in 2004.
To add the final nail in the Criterion F-Zero coffin, Ward also added how disappointed he was at the way in which the Wii U version of Need for Speed: Most Wanted was apparently ignored by Nintendo and EA alike and given very little in the way of promotion. Reading between the lines, I wouldn’t be expecting any ex-Criterion staff starting an F-Zero Kickstarter campaign anytime soon. Sorry guys, put your wallets away!
Source: Nintendo Life