EA had been interested in Criterion before from their TrickStyle game, and were initially in 2002 hoping for them to expand that out to be an open-world type skateboarding game under the Skate or Die! moniker, similar to the popularity of Grand Theft Auto III.

Electronic Arts (EA) acquired Criterion Games as well as the rights to the Burnout series and RenderWare for an estimated US$48 million that year. In 2004, Acclaim filed for bankruptcy and sold off its existing properties to other publishers. At this point in the series, the games were focused on driving on rural and country roads, and while the crashing mechanics were part of the game, these were not emphasized as gameplay elements but simply the undesirable, though often spectacular, result of a collision. Besides races, Burnout 2 introduced the series' signature 'Crash mode', in which players would drive a car into a tableau of other cars and objects to try to do as much damage as possible.

Burnout was successful enough for a sequel Burnout 2: Point of Impact, released by Acclaim in 2002. Burnout was aimed to be an arcade-style racer, placing fun over realism as series like Gran Turismo offered. As a follow-up title, Sperry's team, now with Alex Ward on board, developed a racing game that showed off the capabilities of the newest iteration of RenderWare, named Burnout, also published by Acclaim in 2001. Their first game was a fast-paced skateboarding game, TrickStyle, published by Acclaim Entertainment for the Dreamcast and released in 1999. established in 1999 to showcase the type of games that its RenderWare game engine was capable of, with Fiona Sperry in charge. The first two games were published by Acclaim Entertainment, while later instalments were published by Electronic Arts.īurnout 's origins came by way of Criterion Games, a division of Criterion Software Ltd. Burnout is a series of racing games developed by Criterion Games.

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