Critical Games saw many high-level departures after the release of Need for Speed Unbound. According to GamesIndustry, Matt Webster’s vice president is out after more than 23 years in Electronic Arts.

Executive producer Pete Lake, technical director Andrei Shires, director of studio development Alan McDairmant and head of content Steve Uphill have also left, each spending ten or ten years with EA. They were allowed to explore new opportunities outside the publisher. There’s no word whether the underwhelming response to Unbound, whose launch week physical sales fell by 64 percent in the UK, compared to Need for Speed Heat.

Charity Joy became a star of the EA Sports UFC as an executive producer and Geoff Smith, who worked with the codemasters team for DiRT and GRID, now is director of product development. Smith is still in charge of the next WRC game, which’s launched in spring 2023. Steve Cuss is head of studio operations, but he’ll continue working with Joy and Smith.

GM David Rutter told the team, It’s been one year since the talented teams at Codemasters and Criterion officially came together as one unified force to drive the future of racing entertainment. This is an extremely exciting time for our group as a result of the recent launch of Need for Speed Unbound, the recent launch of the new era for the franchise, and the successful release of EA SPORTS F1 22 earlier this year, and a significant development of WRC.

If we look ahead, we know we have a strong opportunity to develop our games and experiences and bring them to a much broader audience of fans with our long-term strategy based on our strengths in licensed motorsports, and the interests of open-world racing.

Building on the progress made in 2014, with two launches and several new plans on the next step, we are confident that we have the best people, working on the best games, and will achieve great things in 2023.

Need for Speed Unbound was released on Xbox One, PC and PC. It is due to receive til the latest update after the game, with the first going to expand a social play feature. So, update your schedule by the end of January 2023.