You might recall a story during the Wii U generation about how the British-based developer Criterion Games - best known for its work on the Burnout and Need for Speed series over the years - was supposedly asked to work on Nintendo's futuristic racing game F-Zero.
In the end, nothing came of it, with Criterion Founder Alex Ward explaining back in 2015 it was one of many licenses the studio had allegedly been offered over the years. However, during an interview on last week's Game Informer Show, the host Ben Hanson asked again about this opportunity the developer had and Ward responded by saying it was completely false. Here's the full transcript (thanks, Nintendo Everything):
"Once and for all, Nintendo didn't come to Criterion and ask us to make F-Zero. Nothing of the sort at all. Complete false. "
"Somebody quite junior in Nintendo in Europe, who isn’t there anymore, sent me an email and said, ‘Hey, some of us were talking.’ Some of us – what does that mean? That could be the water cooler... And this guy just sent me an email out of the blue, so then I take that email and I replied and said, ‘Well, he must have maybe thought we were an independent company and we weren’t.’ We were wholly owned by EA. One we’re owned by EA. Two, if you want to talk to EA – and those companies have all those discussions all the time – you have to contact this guy in EA and I gave him the email address. And that’s it.”
It wasn't as if Shigeru Miyamoto had personally contacted Criterion. Ward went on to explain how this Nintendo representative was "very junior" and would have never been able to reach out to a senior staff member at EA. To further clarify. he said it was "never a formal thing" and was more of a pipe dream.
Even though Ward now runs his own independent studio Three Fields Entertainment, he's "not really big" on F-Zero, saying how he would be the "wrong person" and it's never really been "his thing" or goal to leave a corporate company and then work on licensed games.
[source youtu.be]
Comments 61
But we already got F-Zero cameos on Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Mute City and Big Blue).
At least we can pretend playing F-Zero from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe with Captain Falcon Amiibo suit. 😁
@Tsurii To the shock of no one.
To be fair EA making a Nintendo licenced game in 2015 isn't much weirder than Sega making a Nintendo licenced game in 2003.
But regardless, if they do make a new F-Zero I hope they find the right team for it.
It’s nice to see a developer suggesting that as they’re not a fan they wouldn’t accept an offer to make a game in the series. It’s a pity that mindset wasn’t applied when Bugbear agreed to make Ridge Racer Unbounded...
I’d love a new F-zero, but I’m thinking Nintendo gave up on it a long time ago and I’m not sure who I’d trust to make it.
Somewhat contradictory article but whatever. I hope Ward creates great successful games in his new venture.
If it was to be an outside developer to make a new F-Zero then I'd pick either Shin'en or Sumo Digital for the job.
Guy seems full of himself.
Somewhere before the F-zero segment, the interviewer compares Ward to The Donald because of the way he speaks.
Very telling! Glad this jack a. wasn't asked to do F-Zero. 😎
To be honest I don't care anymore WHO makes a new f-zero. So long as they can, and will, do the series justice, I'll happily accept any developer with the task at this point. Just give us a new one already!
Maybe Retro's been working on it. Remember Retro? They use to make games for Nintetendo systems
@Tsurii Amen to that brother!
We keep talking about F-Zero, when the platform is lacking any arcade racers, or racers of any type. And the weird thing is that it is an awesome platform for this genre!
@Anti-Matter No we can't. That's like dressing up in a Mario Tanooki suit and pretending we can fly. We may look the part but we're still gonna make a splat.
i'd love to see F-Zero make a comeback. Let's Hope Nintendo is announcing one at E3.
@geox30 out of fashion unfortunately for us. Too much plain fun.
Nintendo's totally abandoned this franchise. They failed to put out a fresh installment on the Wii, the Wii U, the 3DS and now the Switch doesn't seem to be faring any better. A shame, lotta potential there as the Mario Kart DLC F-Zero tracks show
Am glad the main Criterion guys left to form new independent studio and try asking Nintendo again on making a F-Zero game.
I clearly don't follow the right news sources. First I've heard of this story.
Wow. I had no idea the original story was so inflated. This kind of ruins the mystery of it all. Quite a shame.
@Anti-Matter Also an F-Zero cameo in Fast RMX. "Fulcon Capital." Big blue/yellow guy.
Geez, what an awkward interview. Ward seems extremely agitated.
@Anti-Matter look man. At this point NONE of us want cameos. We just want a new f-zero game. Heck if Nintendo doesn't know what new to bring to the table just remaster GX and I'm sold.
I'm still wondering if Retro's involvement with Mario Kart 7 was gearing them up to work on other racing games - namely F-Zero. The Star Fox Grand Prix rumor is still floating around, though, and for all we know, their project before Prime 4 shifting development to them was cancelled, so I honestly doubt there's a new F-Zero coming from Retro at this rate.
The thought of EA touching any Nintendo property is scary.
I'm hoping we see a Switch Pro incorporating analogue triggers and comes bundles with F-Zero GXHD. Otherwise, I can't see how they can make a new F-Zero without taking a step backwards from the last game (which is not very Nintendo)
It’s really time for Nintendo fans to just let f-zero die.
@Qwertyninty I have fond memories with GX. Why should I let it die? I would love to play a new iteration of the series.
Just because you don't like it doesn't mean all of us should let it go and rot.
@PikaPhantom That whole StarFox Grand Prix was likely bunk and really referred to the upcoming DLC for Starlink.
The SNES and N64 games were great, the GameCube one stunk the place out though.
@Arkay has nothing to do with whetting like it or not. Nintendo seems to have let it die. I’m following suite.
@AlohaPizzaJack I forgot about that, actually. The other aspects of the rumor just don't seem to quite line up with Starlink, though, so I wouldn't say the nail's been completely driven into the coffin.
@AxeltheBuizel FZero 2020 will have the same tracks as FZero 2019 but with slightly tweaked controls and the most updated character roster for the new FZero season.
@Arkay with the capabilities of the Switch, we should be able to get GX remastered as well as the SNES and N64 versions as unlockable bonuses or something like that. Or just all 3 on one cartridge.
I feel Nintendo should revive certain franchises, even if only as medium-budget titles.
For example, F-Zero and Wave Race sold digitally for $39. I assume they don't have a huge audience, so something like this would scratch the itch and still be decently profitable.
Sadly, it's all about extremely huge profits or no profits at all. They choose the latter, since they have unreasonably hungry investors / shareholders to constantly satisfy — as Jim Sterling always says.
@Nomad You mean Retro studios? If so, of course, who wouldn't remember... Though you seem to think that they are not making Nintendo games anymore..., but it is in fact a fact that they are making at least one Nintendo game right now, which is Metroid Prime 4.
@Baart
It’s nothing to do with fashion. The unfortunate truth (as someone who loves Arcade Racers deeply) is they don’t sell anymore (apart from Forza Horizon, and if you have to be as good as that magnificent series to sell, almost everyone is going to struggle).
@LavaTwilight F-Zero Ultimate? I like the idea.
@Qwertyninty as a bussiness they should follow demands. Currently the demand is high. I'm not saying they should dish out a new entry every single year. But it has been quite a long time since the last one and fans have been yearning for more.
@Arkay I agree. I thought they had a perfect chance with 3ds. A port of GX with 3d enabled would have been amazing.
@electrolite77 they don't sell anymore because the genre is out of fashion. Don't be dumb.
@Baart
What a strange, unfathomable and unnecessarily aggressive reply. I’ll leave you to whatever point you think you’re making
@electrolite77 not meant aggresively mate. But a dumb comment is a dumb comment. The point is things sell because of fashion and they sell badly because they're out of fashion.
It's not the only reason, but to say it has "nothing" to do with it is just plain dumb.
Just being honest with you.
Yeap they were totally own by EA back then, it's not like they can just work on a license game. After all when was the last time a big name company ask any EA owned dev to make a license game for them right. Now on to completing my playthrough in Sonic Chronicles: the Dark Brotherhood for my Nintendo DS.
When has Nintendo ever asked an external developer owned by a major 3rd party publisher like EA to make a new first party game for them...?
@Baart
There are many more reasons why things do and don’t sell than just ‘fashion’ though. That was my only point. Being in fashion is also no guarantee of sales, being unfashionable doesn’t mean lack of sales. How long does something fail to sell without coming back into fashion, before it’s much more than that? I wish it was just a superficial ‘fashion’ thing but I rather suspect one of my favourite genres is much further gone than that.
Man this sucks. I literally just released a big video on why there hasn't been any new F-Zero games and what should the future be citing the previous article about Criterion. Talk about weird timing.
@electrolite77 I totally get you.
I don't usually buy games on day one but a new F-Zero would be a day one buy for me. Shame we haven't had a Waverace or 1080 on Switch, they both had sequels on GameCube but seem to have been forgotten.
Not surprised to hear that Robertson was wrong. I remember back before Devil's Third came out, Robertson claimed that NoA wasnt gonna publish/localize it and when it came out that they indeed were, Robertson claimed that NoA changed their mind due to backlash, lol. Not that it matters now and it was a terrible game anyway, but its a reminder to take what Robertson says with a grain of salt.
Criterion to me has always been a rise and fall story, they were celebrities of the industry when the Burnout games were in full swing and then EA had them takeover the Need for Speed series and everything fell apart from there. Now a days I remember them for how I hated the influence they had on NFS games as well as the pleasant memories I have of old Burnout games.
@Rekiotsu I was Joking. I know they are Retro Studios, I call them Retro for short. And yes I am aware that the development of Prime 4 was handed to them recently after Nintendo admitted they were'nt doing a good job.
I was joking about how it's been so long since we last heard from Retro. If they are working on Prime 4 now then it's likely they have a game thats finished or close to it.
If so then it is unusual for a developer to have not shown anything so far into into. Maybe we will finally find out at E3. Maybe it's a new F-zero, who knows?
Nintendo has said before that F-Zero is not profitable. People talk about wanting certain IPs yet they don't support them as much as they should. Money talks!
@westman98 You do realize Metroid: Other M got that treatment right? Tecmo Koei's external developer Team Ninja got full rights to work on that game and fail to live up to the Metroid expectation.
@retro_player_22
Metroid Other M's reception is probably one of the reasons why Nintendo stopped that practice.
@Anti-Matter what’s wrong with you? Honestly.
@electrogeist I don't agree with everything he says but that's a bit harsh and unnecessarily so. Not cool.
I really wish we got a new F-Zero.
With local split screen.
Why don't they release an f-zero collection if they don't want to make a new game? Or at least, remaster GX.
@KryptoniteKrunch I never made any of this up. We got this information from the very person in the quote, Alex Ward himself! He was quoted in my original video! I spoke with him myself. I NEVER SAID THEY WERE DEVELOPING AN F-ZERO GAME. All I ever said was that they were asked if it would be possible and were told not.
@KryptoniteKrunch Also, everything about the NoA report was true. Plenty of other sites reported that as well. Not just me.
@Tsurii Literally nothing about my report was untrue. We got the info directly from Alex Ward himself, the person quoted in this very article! I spoke with him about this and the history of Black.
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