Article: How EA Killed a popular racing series?
Article
Oh, Electronic Arts? Where did you go wrong? Before the power-hungry company, EA was once respected as one of the best publishers of the modern era. Spawning various series like Need for Speed, Battlefield, Titanfall, and many others. However, I tend to focus my attention on when EA was at (in my opinion) their very best: the 2000s racing Era.
This hurts me to write to this day as I am going to mention the Burnout series. My childhood favourite series died a long time ago, around 2009 - 2010 when the release of Burnout Paradise hit the market. Burnout was developed by Criterion Games, led by Alex Ward, and had two different publishers up until Alex’s departure in 2014. Burnout Paradise, at the time, was different compared to its older brothers since it was the first time they decided to go open-world; before then, Burnout 1 to Revenge (AKA 4) was all closed-off tracks/routes, which made it have personality. Burnout as a whole lasted roughly 7 years, with each iteration improving from the last. However, EA took over the publishing rights since Acclaim Entertainment (Burnout and Burnout 2 Point of Impact publishers) shut down on September 1st 2004, due to a lackluster year. The very first title, simply named Burnout, released in 2001, was heavily inspired by the Japanese exclusive title of Thrill Drive. The concept? Simple: just drive around various locations based on real-world locations, using a boost mechanic, trying not to cause a mass amount of damage as possible. Burnout 1 was well received as its concept was quite unique for the western market.
My personal favourite was Burnout 3 Takedown. This was EA’s first, and oh boy did it provide fun. The subtitle, Takedown, was its first major change within the series, instead of not trying to cause damage within the first two games, this mechanic made it so you can check other racers into traffic, allowing you to cause as much damage as possible. Along with this change, a new event called Road Rage, which its title suggests, involves taking out other drivers without running out of time or taking massive amounts of damage. One feature that made its way into Burnout Paradise was the radio host: DJ Stryker (Later known as DJ Atomika) on its fictional channel called Crash FM, became an integral part of Burnout 3’s identity, adding a sense of humour and wackiness to an already wacky game. Burnout 3 was nominated as “Game of the Year”, competing with the likes of Half-Life 2, Halo 2, Gran Turismo 4 and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. That’s not to say it didn’t win anything, It became the 2nd British Academy Games Awards “PS2”, “Racing” and "Technical Direction” best game, and also won “Racing Game of the Year” and “Console Game of the Year.” at the Annual Interactive Achievements Awards. At the 2004 Spike Video Game Awards, it won “Best Driving Game” and became the viewers’ choice of “Most Addictive Game” and was nominated previously mentioned as Game of the Year. Safe to say Burnout 3 Takedown is regarded as one of the best racing games of all time.
The last installment, Burnout Paradise, was released in 2008 for the PS3, Xbox 360, and Windows PC. Upon its release, it was met with positive reviews stating that the open world was amazing and stayed true to the original feel of Burnout’s legacy. The concept of making its release to an open world made it feel unique and modern to the ever-growing popularity of open-world racing games at the time, whilst keeping some of the integral parts of previous games within the series. On top of this, Online made Paradise feel like it deserved its praise of being a Burnout game, adding new game modes like Cops and Robbers, combining various elements of previous games; it truly did feel like the end was near. At the time, EA wanted to focus on its other major franchise: Need for Speed, telling Burnout’s developers to make games for the Need for speed series like Hot Pursuit, game based around breaking the law, fighting against ridiculous police cars and Most Wanted 2012, Which its name was taken from the most popular game Most Wanted 2005, felt more like Burnout Paradise successor rather than a Most Wanted one. Over the years, Criterion staff were frequently pulled to other EA titles, which, as a result, let Burnout die.
In conclusion, do I blame EA for killing a beloved franchise? Yes, I do. Taking staff from a racing game studio to help release other games like Battlefield 6 was the stupidest thing EA could have done. Burnout still has beloved fans, myself included, who would love to see a main title release to this day. I was happy when we remastered Burnout Paradise for the PS4 and Xbox One, as it felt like the series could make a comeback, but ultimately never did. I doubt I’ll see a Burnout 3 or Burnout Revenge remaster in my lifetime, but that's not to say there's no hope; Wreckreaction 2 seems to be a Burnout Paradise inspired game which I can’t wait to play. Maybe one day we can have a well-deserved remaster.
Additional Info
Written by: Ferrari F50 GT
Publish Date: August 8th, 2026 @ 2:19pm
