As a Battlefield studio, is Criterion Games really still Criterion?

You know, Chris, that DICE could never have pulled this one off as an only studio [music] at this kind of scale. And you know, Byron and Vince joined a couple of years ago, very clear on the vision of what Battlefield 6 should be, the best Battlefield ever.
All the studios respect each other. As I said, we're not a support studio. There's no dominant studio in here.
Four studios, but one team. That is the way that we work. Each studio brings its own perspective, its own identity. [music] Hello and welcome to the Game Business Show. Now, this year, Criterion Games celebrates its 30th anniversary. And if you're new to the industry and you don't know who that is, they're a storage video game studio based in the UK responsible for some alltime icons. It's most famous for the Burnout series, but it's worked on many classics, including Black and Trickstar. They've led development on numerous Need for Speed projects and supported games in the Battlefield and Star Wars Battlefront series 2. Now, I used to know Criterion

really well, particularly under the leadership of Matt Webster and Steve Cus. They frequently took part in the best places to work awards event I used to run and they've won numerous times, often as one of the highest scoring companies. In 2022, it released Need for Speed Heat. But after that, things changed. Five leaders of Criterion left after that game shipped, including Webster and Cuss, as well as long-standing veterans Andrea Shyus, Alan McDerman, and Pete Lake. Four of them went on to create a new developer called Fuse, which is working on the upcoming Star Wars racing game Galactic Racer. Now, after that, Criterion pivoted away from the racing genre where it made its name and became fully focused on the Battlefield series. is now called Criterion, a Battlefield Studio, and is one of four primary developers that worked on Battlefield 6. The other three being Swedish Studio and Battlefield Founders DICE, LA based Ripple Effect, and Canada based Motive. Now, from the outside, it seemed like the criterion I

knew had gone. No longer a team with its own identity and creative agency, but effectively a support team working on an established shooter series. But is that fair? Is it really a downgrade to go from making mildly popular racing games to being part of something significantly bigger? And if Criterion really has lost its identity, why has it just had a brand refresh where is still very much called Criterion? Why isn't it just DICE UK? To challenge all my unreasonable assumptions, I had a chance to chat with a number of people at the studio, and you're about to hear from them. First, we will have director of operations Amy Peek and producer Stefan Whittlelesburgger. And then we'll have senior producer Danny Isaac before finally our big interview with VP and general manager for Battlefield Studios Europe, Rebecca Coutaz, who oversees both DICE and Criterion. And as well as Criterion, we also chat, of course, about the first 9 months of Battlefield 6. Well, thank you for joining the show. You've been working at

studios that led the development on games and you know this was their game. Criterion is one of four studios working on Battlefield. I know you've been asked this question before, but do you get the same job satisfaction from that as you would do if it was fully your own project?
Different kind of satisfaction or your thoughts because you're highly in dev.
Well, I do. Um I think uh I think satisfaction comes from having a semblance of autonomy, having a semblance of being empowered to make decisions and being empowered to, you know, own your area. And I think Battlefield is it's a huge it's a mammoth of a game, right? it's it's got so many moving parts and so many things uh to focus on that it requires a big team to be delivered on. So that means that criterion is a critical pillar of that organization and we deliver experiences right that we own that we have control over and I think the satisfaction comes from seeing that reflected in in the product. We work very closely with the other studios. We

work very closely with leadership, with franchise leadership, with chapter leadership in general how we work together um with clear vision sets given um that that just makes decision making easier, faster um and ultimately I think that is just a a great way um to work. There's a clear throughine on what makes Battlefield great and everybody understands that and everybody's on the same page of that. So there's a there's a strong common denominator on all developers here um that makes owning your area um easy and as such you know you find satisfaction in your job. I think to add to that too, like people ask why I've been in the industry for so long. For me, satisfaction comes to working really hard to see something end up in the hands of the players and the players love it. And you know, we talk about delight. You'll hear me say surprise and delight a lot. And I think, you know, that is where the satisfaction is derived from. This is a huge franchise. It's a storied franchise. It's a storied studio. And I think for

me really the satisfaction is derived from a bunch of people coming together to do something that's really great. and then being able to see people react and play the thing that you've made and react in a really positive way and have a really great success. Um, that is the satisfaction. So whether that's autonomous or whether that's a part of a much larger team, the end result is still the thing that that really resonates with all of us and why we do the hard thing for 20 plus years. Um, having players play the thing that you've made is the most wonderful feeling.
And then you go to Reddit. [laughter]
Don't do that. But even even in Reddit, you find those nuggets of
That's right. Yes. That's still passion. It's just misplaced.
A little pling on that. I mean, I I I dropped in Reddit as a joke, but but we are listening to players, right? Because it's not only hey, we launched and that's that, right? There's a whole element of live service. There's a whole element of hey, we we're launch. And the players do uh they're very

vocal. The Battlefield community has always been extremely vocal. So the the way we are approaching that um from a life service point of view of listening to our community engaging with our community with our player base with in general with with those kind of through our community management teams or outreach programs etc. All of that is is healthy game development and I think just amplifies the whole element of of delighting right and ensuring that we're we're making games with our crew um and with our player base. So yeah.
Yeah. I got it was a qu there are there are Reddit threads with my name in the headline which I will not click on. Um but um
yeah Reddit is Reddit special place that
I'm sure it's great. And the uh [laughter] how do you even collaborate with all these studios and this is a very naive question I think but I I think when you've got people in LA and you've got people in in Canada, Montreal and just how do you pull that off? Yeah, I mean part of it this is going to be a really operational type uh answer but part of

it is making sure that you know the development makes sense where it happens right so you do try to ensure there's some amount of regionality and feature development and areas um so that you don't have as much cross time zone but obviously you do still have to collaborate it's a whole product altogether um you know we have you know tools and mechanisms what we call the battle ready ways of working right so we look at our our hours and our day we make sure that meetings happen in those collaboration times that meetings where, you know, we're all in one region, aren't happening in those key collaboration times, we're really intentional about the way we we meet. We talked about, you know, having a very clear vision, ensuring that the team is really aligned in that vision, having regular play tests as an entire franchise, right? We're not just doing that. Um, we've optimized the play test time to ensure that everyone can take part. You know, it's coming together at those right moments. It's ensuring that, you know, we're having um consistency in the way that we talk about definitions of done and success. And so while it's challenging when you're across multiple time zones and multiple studios, we do try to find, you know, those through lines and those consistencies and the

ideal ways of working where we look to collaborate and, you know, ensure that we're all kind of heading in the same direction. Um, again, that's the producer. So
yeah, strong written communication is is critical. Like we all have channels and chat channels that we use to ensure that we're always up to date that we hand over, you know, when it's the end of our day and the start of theirs. There's always elements of you just understand the time zone of difference. You embrace it and you work through it and you work with it rather. Uh there's travel as well. We believe in connecting as individuals. It's very important if you're working with a team that's for example in in Stockholm that you regularly go and connect with them in person. I think that that just makes collaboration a lot easier. Um in general I think what what Amy said right we we just embrace it. the time difference of is of course always the biggest challenge right the eight hour difference or more with with LA that's one of the biggest biggest gaps but um it's doable clearly shared vision common denominators is what brings us together um and we collaborate and we all know we

have to get it done we all have to deliver and and and we have to
juror do yours [laughter] exactly no but it's uh but it's important right I think uh everybody everybody's working towards this brand thing which is Battlefield and I think that's what brings us together and makes collaboration just easier.
What do you think Criterion has brought to Battlefield 6? What is it in Battle whether it's a thing or whether it's a vibe in Battlefield as you can say that's that's the Criterion identity or the Criterion input.
So I think I think Criterion what it brings it brings attitude attitude of I'm sorry can I can I can I swear getting done. Can I say that? Can I [laughter] say that? Can I say that Fabio? All right. we we get done. Um, so so it's it's it's the thing of getting stuck into it, right? I mean, we we say dare, deliver, and delight for a reason. There's just not pillars on pillars, right? There there really are ways of working um that we pride

ourselves in cuz we dare to to challenge that status quo. We we dare to go above and beyond. we always deliver what we say we have to deliver and we do so with a gameplay feel um with a player mindset and a player first mentality and I think all of that um uh when you're when you're sitting at the table with four other big players or three other big players right everybody brings something to that table everybody steps up and you just have to uh ensure that you're putting your best foot forward and I think criterion has delivered on that and continues to deliver on that so so I think we're we're We're at the same eye eye height as every everybody else with dice and ripple and and motive. Um, and I think Criterion just brings its own um attitude, identity, personality and just um, you know, attention to detail, that vibe, that player first mindset, all all of those things that makes Criterion great is is what we bring to Battlefield and I think it's reflected in in in the

game. you're better at citing the exact missions and the beats, but it's that Criterion, you know, fingerprint that you can see on on particular missions, right? It's um it's spectacle. It's the minute to minute kind of gameplay feel, the pace, um controlled chaos, right? We talk about, you know, deliver and delight, right? There's those are things that feel very criterion. Um and those are the the elements that we brought to Battlefield 6.
Brilliant. Thank you, Amy. Thank you, Stephan. I appreciate your time.
Thank you. So nice to meet you. So, do you sort of work on different corners of the game? Is it is that how it works? My mind is blown by this like you know how you uh how you partition things up and and and make all this come together.
Yeah, each studios are able to develop their own titles as we show with you know crit speed unbound lately. But when we work here, we look at the best people for the job. And sometimes that may mean a group of us are working collaboratively on a key area of of Battlefield 6, while others may be working with DICE or Motive or Whipple Effect in other areas of the games.

Although there is challenges here, it also gives us a lot of opportunity of having these, you know, four super studios and these these powerhouse studios in Battlefield 6, Battlefield Studios. We can really get the best people working together to get the best experience for our players. So, I'm sort of asking quite what you might think is quite basic questions. We've done this for years. Why is this even a thing? But it's just it's such a it's such a
it's not it's it's actually quite insightful because um I would say anyone building games, I'm always so uh appreciative of any studio that ships a game. Um in my career, I've had games killed. It's tough what we do. Um and then working across multiple studios in different time zones, getting that coordination is really, really hard as well. Um but we have fantastic teams. uh to do that. So, um uh it's not easy by any stretch of the imagination, but it as you saw from Battlefield 6, it seems to be working.
Yeah, it's really good. I It's interesting because I've not spoken to Criterion since. Well, I I was I've always gotten very well with Matt Webster and Steve Cus too. Um Criterion

was a big winner at the best place to work awards, which I ran for many, many years. Um so, very well regarded. you've come into you came into that company, right? The the sort of the Webster era company and you've seen it morph into this Battlefield studio. How would you say how would you say it's different?
Um Tion, we were um I mean we obviously did first person shooters with Black. Uh we're a big part of Battlefield 5 development with Firestorm also Battlefront. So it's always been there or thereabouts and a lot of people our current team now joined because they're working on whether that was Battlefront or Battlefield. they wanted to be in their their first person shooter genre and delivering these massive AAA games on that. I think um obviously working now within other studios you probably have uh I guess a little less autonomy that we used to have in the old days was like hey let's just do this and go ahead and get this thing done um as we go through. Um but it's a a different type

of de development. Um as we said deliver something on the scale of Battlefield 6 uh we need multiple studios to work there. So um very sim similar in some ways we still have that same creed um within criterion of that that gameplay feel really really matters. It's really important to us that rapid iteration really really really important to us. Uh our adaptability as a studio all those elements are still there. uh it's just wrapped into um I guess times 10 as we look at the battlefield studios and what we need to deliver with battlefield text.
So I was going to ask like do you still get the job satisfaction as a sort of support studio which maybe is unfair phrasing as you would leading a development on something like Need for Speed.
I think uh from Criterion we have that kind of quirky British view and we've always looked at things slightly differently at Criterion and then we bring that innovation in there. Um do we get our job satisfaction? I mean, I do when you look at uh when you look at what Battlefield does, you know, BF6, I

think, was the best selling uh first person shooter in 2025.
Um I think uh I think it was the bestselling global game in North America
and um just to see how it was received by our fans. I think that's what I mean that's where we come to work, right? To
not just build these things and have fun here, to ship them and put it in our fans hands and whether they like it or they don't, right? we get that feedback and then we iterate and we go again. That's really really fun and what we love to do here. And I think with Battlefield being able to do that on millions upon millions of people to be able to see our work that I get a lot of satisfaction.
How easy is it to put the criterion stamp on something like Battlefield? Because you point out there's always a I don't know there's always a slight flavor to a British made game I think but is it possible maybe do that on a on a on a title like Battlefield?
Yeah. All the studios respect each other. As I said, we're not a support studio. There's no dominant studio in here.

Obviously, there's as we look through from dice, right? We have a lot of history there. There's a lot of creativity from the Batfield franchise over the years, and I love to hear some of their stories as we go through. Or we look at motive and a lot of their their experience and single player and ripple effect. A lot of the team there came from DICE originally and they have their own flavor that they bring in. uh work very closely with a lot of the audio team there that were excellent uh as we went through. But um uh as we come through, we still have that creative autonomy in what we're building. Now, obviously, we have to sell it in to everyone else. They don't just leave us alone as we go, but we have that passion and we can drive through. Yeah. Then we can we can stamp that criterion flare into a lot of what we do.
I'll ask one more question because I ran out of time, but um is there actually a part of Battlefield 6 that you can point to and went criterion did that that's the Criterion corner? Oh, is is that just not how that game is put together?
It's not really how we structured the studios as a sen all the studios could ship a game by themselves. So, what we

would do is get the best people to work in the best area at the right time with with the other studios to get, you know, some of the best developers in the world working on which can sometimes be pretty gnarly problems. So, I don't think we can I can really pick out a piece I can say, hey, yeah, that was just Criterion that did that. Um, what I can say is, uh, we're super proud of of working with those other studios, how well we collaborated with them, and I'm super excited about what we can bring to the Battlefield Studios going forward.
Sounds like you're one big studio rather than rather than four. But um, Danny, thank you so much. I appreciate your time.
It's a pleasure, Chris. Anytime. Thanks for taking the time.
Hello, Rebecca. Welcome to the show.
Hello, Chris. Thank you for having me.
It's been a real roller coaster. The Battlefield 6 story so far the launch was phenomenal and the success you had in that in right just incredible right biggest shooter of the year red sec maybe a bit more mixed then there's been some cuts and then you had obviously the

tragedy with Vince so I guess my question is how are you [laughter]
thank you for asking it's uh as you said Chris it's been an incredible journey and uh I'm good the teams are good we are happy. We're are pleased. Of course. Um releasing a game at at that scale. It's hard. It's difficult. And uh we did well. Have we learned uh through the ride? Of course. And do we listen to our players? Of course. Do we adapt? Do we change? Of course. But yeah. No, it's uh it's good. I'm good. Thanks for asking.
I just think there's probably a book in this uh the launch of this game. Um um but we last spoke four years ago, which is upsetting because it doesn't feel 4 years ago. And we were talking at the time, and I know we're here to talk about Criterion, but we're talking at the time about DICE's recovery after the launch of Battlefield 2042. And you said to me at the time, we want DICE to be the number one spot for firsterson

shooter games in Europe and one of the powerhouses in the world. Now we're here, mission accomplished, right?
Yes. [laughter] [snorts]
It's remarkable. It's fantastic. Yeah, we are uh super happy. Super happy for Battlefield, super happy for our players, and of course, super happy for the team at DICE, but you know, Chris, that DICE could never have pulled this one off as an [clears throat] only studio at this kind of scale. And you know, Byron and Vince joined a couple of years ago very clear on the vision of what Battlefield 6 should be, the best Battlefield ever, and bringing together four worldclass studios together with uh Criterion of course um what we are going to talk about today and then um Motive in Montreal and Ripple Effect in LA.
Incredible. It's an incredible endeavor. Was it difficult? Of course it was difficult. Was it hard? Of course it was. It was hard. What is satisfying

when we launched? Of course it was satisfying when we launch. Well, I've spoken to some of your team at Criterion. It doesn't sound like it's four studios coming together. It actually sounds like one mega studio. It sounds like there's no, you know, it wasn't a case of Criterion, you do the you do the you do the vehicles and uh you know, we'll do the shooting. It it doesn't sound like that was how it it worked at all. It sounds more like one ginormous cross, you know, multiple multi-country um mega studio. That's what that's how the vibe I get. Anyway,
well, I would of course four studios but one team. That is the way that we work. Each studio brings its own perspective, its own identity. You have a studio like Criterion who's been around for 30 years who've been developing games like Black Burnout, Need for Speed and of course other uh been a partner on other um Battlefield games as well. Of course, a

team like Criterion will come with a different perspective. Of course, a team like Motive developing Dead Space will come with a different perspective and of course ripple effect will come with a different perspective. But that is the power behind the way that we work. And my role is to ensure that the two studios that I work with, DICE and Criterion can thrive in their own identity in with a culture that each studio have that is unique in this global one game one spirit. Now I know you said this earlier when you were giving your welcome to the studio but what what is what would you say is the criterion identity? What is the criterion perspective?
So you know criterion's been around for 30 years and started off way back with the renderware which we all used as a middleware to make games on the PlayStation 2. So a technical excellence and then came burnout and then came black and then came needed for speed and

the way that criterion manages instant reward. Um I can never say that word in English but the intens intensivity
uh the rush of adrenaline
intensity
int thank you Chris
so hard to say in English um you know that are that are the special moments that criterion is bringing to the table based on the experience that criterion has and it's a different perspective from what uh dice will bring to the table who are masters of multip the player or what a motive would bring to the table
is it this is this sounds like a loaded question I don't mean it to be but obviously criterion it has this history we talk about the history there of burnout and need for speed and here's the thing it's gone through multiple eras isn't like there's criterion pre at battlefield studio and post battlefield studio there is of course I remember I knew the Alex Ward and Fiona Sperry very long were going far enough back I'm good

friends with Matt Webster and I know Steve Cus really well so I know that there's different eras and the cultures changed with those eras and the games are making, but obviously now they're primarily working on this game with multiple studios. Is it really the same studio? Do you really get that sense that it's it's it's the same team that was on Renderware in the '90s?
Of course not, Chris. And I it cannot be because you know that as an industry we have evolved so much. So you remember back in the days we had physical goods uh you know now we're digital. we could only make single player games. Now we can, you know, make games for 64 players and even more online. So the studio has evolved and and the team has to evolve. Um, so of course it's not the same and it will not be the same in 10 years and it should not be the same in 10 years. I think what's the most important thing is that we have and we spoke about it this morning in the

introduction. We have talents who've been with us for decades. We have talents who've been with us for 5 years. And we have new talents. And altogether we are shaping the future to be the best place to work to be the best place where you can make the best work of your career and that you can bring your own um that you can bring your own identity and your own strength to what the battlefield is. You mentioned best place to work which is going to make me happy because I launched the best place to work awards in the UK. It was my project for eight years or so. Um and I had
many many awards.
I know I handed them out. Uh the um but uh Matt Webster, Steve Cuss, I think I remember very I remember very I've forgotten the word. I remember just I remember very I it was it was I can still picture it. Um Matt and Steve were on stage and they said, "Look, 10 years ago, we would probably

have won the worst company work award and we've gone on this big journey, cultural journey." Um so they've won countless awards. Honestly, I think two years there was the highest scoring out of all the companies in the in the UK. Um but since then there's been a pivot to Battlefield. There's been staff changes and all sorts. Matt is obviously doing his criterion like things at Fuse. Um, has the team culture changed? Have you changed the approach or is it a continuation of what was there before?
It's an evolution of the culture I would say.
Okay. [clears throat]
Uh, we have new talent who have joined. We have talents coming from all over the world that are bringing their own history to the studio as well. And they are part of the Criterion story like everybody who joins us. Uh but what's important uh Chris is that we are a culture where people can express themsel where they dare to take risks where they

dare to innovate because that is when we are making our best games and that culture will not change and that culture we are the guardians of.
Yeah. Wow. Well, it's interesting because I think the stat you put was 23% of staff have been part of criterion for over a decade. Um, now I know that when a studio pivots from maybe working on their own projects to supporting projects, it's not fair. This isn't supporting thing, but maybe working on a project other people are involved. That can be demotivating. I I've seen that through when I did best place to work, not specifically criterion, but but how do you keep staff motivated when they're used to having ownership of the game they're making? Hey, they still have ownership. That hasn't changed, Chris. I mean, if you I don't know if you have played Battlefield 6,
but you know, well, it's easy for me to say because I know what each studio

created. I can immediately see when I play Battlefield 6, what team has created what. You see the soul, you see the strengths of each team. So the
the ownership hasn't changed, Chris. Our teams are still
What in Battlefield 6 would you go that side criterion? You said you can identify and I'm interested to know what it is those things.
Moment to moment gameplay,
uh, instant reward, intensity, rush, and adrenaline. You can tell.
Yeah.
And that hasn't changed. It might be an ignorant question, but why does Battlefield need the network of sort of studios? What is it about it that that meant the game needed that?
But, you know, we're operating on a a huge scale, Chris. We're providing so many different gameplay experiences to our players in Battlefield 6.
The multiplayer, the single player, a

free-to-play that cannot be created by one studio. It's not possible. the scale is just huge. Previously, we couldn't really work on that kind of scale. We didn't have the tools, but it requires also a organization, a process uh in a totally different manner than what we actually could do a couple of years ago. So today, to be able to create games at the scale that we are, we have to be multiple studios. If you look Chris at any of the major franchises in our industry, you know that there are hundreds and hundreds of developer behind those.
How easy is it to put that criterion stamp on a mega beer bare mega mega game like Battlefield 6?
We want it.
That's what we need, you know. We we want to uh delight our players and we want that. That is of course we have a global vision. Of course, we know what we need to to do, but the teams working

on on Battlefield and the teams working at Criterion are empowered to utilize that vision for what we can provide to our players. How do you manage and this this is again it's an ignorant question. Thing that I find um that's crucial in a modern video games industry is speed, right? um particularly live service games is that ability to react and and I and obviously I I I spoke to Patrick Soden last year around art raiders and which is obviously some of the former battlefield a lot and they've got a smaller team and they've been able to move fast and they're very proud of that but you're obviously a very big team across multiple countries. How do you pull off the the speed thing that um that ability to go faster?
It's crucial. So we have to be very [clears throat] clear on our different mandates that are given to the different teams and uh the autonomy and empowerment because one thing that hasn't changed in 30 years and coming from games where we were eight to being games now where we're hundreds is the

feedback loop. You know we need to develop and we need to iterate. We need to test. We need to develop, iterate and test. Then that feedback loop has to be super super fast uh before we launch but even when we're live. So that's the way we have to do it. Even though we're hundreds of players, we have to assure that our teams can iterate fast.
Are AI tools making much of a difference in that in that area?
Uh a in the iteration I'm not sure. You know Chris, we've been working on AI for years in our industry. The difference now is the geni AI and the emergent AI. And uh we wouldn't be a world-class studio if we didn't look into how these new tools can help us to um increase and perhaps make our process more efficient. So we can really put our value on innovation and creativity. Can we have less power points perhaps? Can

we make a planning quicker? probably. Can we take away some of those boring tasks? Probably. Can we take away those manual tasks? Probably. But, uh, of course, we are looking into it like everybody else and and we need to learn. We need to learn fast.
There's a lot of difference opinion in the industry that it's going to make a meaningful difference to that to that speed. It, you know, can it can possibly help with creativity, but it won't necessarily make the question I often ask is, will it allow you to make games quicker or put stuff out faster? And every answer I get is sort of like, well, it depends on how you use it. [laughter] And it seems the jury's a bit out on that front.
Well, I don't think we have enough knowledge yet. You know, we're learning every week, every day. I don't think we can really
um confirm or pronounce anything that we are discovering on the fly.
I'm interested because Criterion have worked with, you know, Ghost games in the past and obviously with DICE on Battlefront and Battlefield. the the

idea of having multiple studios supporting and whatever working or know working together isn't new, but because obviously this this big four powerful studios collaborating together, have you had to structurally change things as there has to be a rethink on how everything's, you know, these studios are old studios, a lot of them, they've been around for a very long time. They've got a way of doing things and this is how we do things. Have you had to sort of rip that up a bit in order to uh build Battlefield 6?
Yeah. you know that it's not the same uh thing to make one game with one studio but to scale at this level and of course we had to look into the organization to make it more efficient in our new world whether it's dice or criterion or or the studios in North America of course we have looked into it and today we are productled uh which means that we are uh looking into a feature and we are cross discipline around that feature. This is not rocket science. Most studios are

organized in that way and that helps us to be fast. It helps us to be agile and it helps us to create a team that is cross discipline around the feature totally focused whether it's a feature or game mode or whatever but it's it's a cross-discipline team.
I was talking to some of your team earlier and they talked about how listening to the players and all that kind of stuff really important. I know that but Battlefield there's a Battlefield audience right and the when Battlefield 6 first launched that was the the Battlefield core Battlefield experience and then there's Red Sack which sort of is hey as Laura said to me a couple of weeks ago it's our we're getting we're going to go beyond that but we're going to make sure we deliver for the core first and then look at expanding beyond that but when you're now having to go through all the feedback and work out what it is you're doing that must be a um working out manag managing all those different voices and those different fans, new ones, old ones, classic ones. Um, I don't really have a question to this,

but it it must be the the biggest challenge for you is to work out what what what to listen to, what to prioritize. Um, that I know you've got a lot of staff and you're able to do quite a lot of things, but it still must be a challenge.
Challenge. It's it's an interesting question, Chris. I would say like and and uh very aligned with what Laura shared of course that we have to assure that our core community is satisfied first before we go and look for new players obviously. Um but you know that feedback is so important to us and we learn so much and you know as you said we already listened to our players before we released through body labs and through the community council and and all other tools and play test and everything we have and we are just making a greater game with based on all this feedback. Is it difficult to prioritize? I would say yes and no because even though we have our core community, a lot of feedback from our new players are

actually aligned with what our core community is saying. Well, do we want larger maps?
Yeah. Doesn't matter if you're core community or if you're a new player, we want larger maps. Do we more do we want more content? Yes. Doesn't matter if you're a core community or if you're a new player.
So, we'll go back to Criterion. Is there an element is there a studio that's in charge of that in charge of that you know um feedback and player testing and that kind of or is it again is it all just all four of them working together on those sort of things. You know what? I will make it even simpler. It's everyone on the floor. Everyone on the floor making games have to listen to the players. That's what we do.
And of course, we provide the information from the Bfield Labs, from community council. We share everything. We have frequent meetings if not daily at least weekly where of course we share this information. It's important for our creators to know what they are creating, how it's perceived or what kind of

feedback. And do we fix everything from the community? Of course not, because there are priorities. We might take note and fix it in the future. So, it just could be a question of timing as well. But yeah, it's it's everyone's responsibility. We are player first. It's one of our core values.
This is might be an odd very specific question to ask. It's just it's something niggling in the back of my mind. When you're looking to expand the team or when you need or we need different expertise, we need we want to hire some whatever. Where do you hire? Do you just do you just adver advertise and it could be in UK or do you specifically target studios or criterion is going to grow by this amount? How does that It's a very nuts and bolts question. Sorry, but it's just something that's in the back of my head. We we it's actually based on what g uh what player experience is uh developed and created where to make it simple [clears throat] and um we have uh we still have job openings so if
well um I'm sort of out of questions um I guess where where do you see this

organization in in five years this I know that you're in charge of the European teams but where do you see do you see it just being where they are now but perhaps a little bit bigger working close together how do you see this um this collaboration and these teams or criteria in particular in five years
you know it it's it's a good question Chris and today we know that we are battlefield we know that we have created a platform we know that we are continuing to provide uh live content to our players and we know that Battlefield is one of the most important franchise within the EA portfolio and even within the entertainment industry. So to be able to continue to create those fantastic uh player experiences and the battlefield moments um we need a lot of developers and we need developers with different backgrounds and different expertise and different inputs. Um so that is what we're going to do and that

is what we dedicated to Chris.
Okay. All right. Well maybe there'll be a fifth Battlefield Studio. Um the [laughter] good Rebecca, thank you so much for your time. I appreciate you [clears throat] coming on and um yeah, I love Criterion and Battlefield 6 journey has been an exciting one so far and um I look forward to what happen what comes next.
Thanks Chris. We're proud.
Thank you. That's it for today's episode of the game business show. Thank you to Amy, Stefan, Danny, and Rebecca for joining us. We'll be back with more news, analysis, insight, and interviews in the days and weeks ahead. Now, to make sure you don't miss anything, to make sure we do get our next big interview, just head to the gamebus.com, put in your email address, and you'll get an alert every single time we put out an episode. You'll also get a write up of each one of our episodes, so if you don't have time to listen or watch it, you can just read it. All for absolutely nothing. But that's it from us today. Until next time, thank you for tuning in.