Whatever Happened to Burnout?

Whenever I get nostalgic about racing games, I think about the Burnout franchise.

Whether it’s the extremely difficult and tense original game or the destruction derby that is Burnout Revenge, I always remember the Burnout franchise with a smile. It was only recently when I replayed Burnout Revenge that I wondered: what on earth happened to this great franchise? Did the Burnout franchise just… burn out?

For those who are unaware, Burnout was a series of popular “high-speed” racing games released from 2001 to 2011. The first instalment of the franchise was published in 2001 by Acclaim Entertainment, and was developed by Criterion Games. While the first game focused on speed and accuracy, whereby the player had to reach checkpoints in a certain time to succeed, the franchise later became known for more chaotic arcade-like action that centred on vehicular combat.

After the release of the second game, Burnout 2: Point of Impact, Criterion Games was acquired by Electronic Arts, who commissioned a further three main instalments of the franchise. Burnout 3: Takedown, Burnout Revenge, and Burnout Paradise were all hits with the critics, achieving Metacritic scores of 94, 90, and 88 respectively. Supporting the strong reviews, the games also proved to sell strongly, with 2008’s Burnout Paradise selling an estimated 2 million copies worldwide. Besides some spin-offs, however, there hasn’t been another Burnout game for consoles since 2008.

The disappearance of the Burnout franchise could mainly be down to EA not seeing a market for it. Indeed, while Burnout Paradise sold well, especially in the United States, EA already had a few driving game franchises under its belt. Need for Speed, for example, was a well-established and long-standing franchise by the time Burnout fell into EA’s lap. Moreover, at the peak of Burnout’s popularity, Need for Speed was also selling better.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, released in 2010 and also developed by Criterion Games, sold 2.8 million copies worldwide. It’s clear, then, that EA would see no need to keep Burnout as a core franchise going forward – if forecasts showed the Burnout games making less revenue than their already established and more popular driving franchise, why would they? What’s more, they now had acquired the talent of Criterion and could use it to strengthen the Need for Speed brand. Criterion would go on to publish a further two Need for Speed games, all of which sold and reviewed strongly.

Another reason why the Burnout series has been absent for the past decade is probably due to the change in what players are looking for when it comes to driving and racing games. Ever since the release of the original Gran Turismo, driving games have steadily shifted away from classic, arcade-like controls to a more realistic, simulator feel. While Burnout started as an accuracy and time-based game, the franchise grew to its most popular when the vehicular combat of Burnout Revenge started to attract people.

In the first game, touching any other traffic meant certain death, but from Takedown onward, the goal seemed to be to use collisions and “checking” to your advantage, especially to disrupt other players. Along with the unrealistic accidents and crashes, the controls also felt like they were designed around giving the player a fun experience that was accessible to the majority. However, the goal in racing game development today is all about creating an authentic driving experience that for the most part isn’t half as much fun. With so many driving games trying to create hyper-realism, you would think reviving a franchise like Burnout might make some headway in a market that’s crowded with banality, but it doesn’t seem to be the case.

Furthermore, this advance in realism in racing games has also seen a huge rise in the cost it requires to make such games. More realism demands for licensed cars, the rights for which all have to be purchased from the respective car manufacturers. An example of this shift can be seen in Porsche revealing a new car during Microsoft’s E3 press conference, a move which felt completely out of place but proves how far racing games have come.

Burnout and any other arcade car game might not do so well in a market where players want to drive the latest Lamborghini, not a cheap lookalike without the proper rights. If they could make it work though, I think it could be great. Who wouldn’t want to see realistic car damage in a game where you can destroy a Bugatti Veyron? In real life, you’re lucky if you see a Bugatti at all, let alone one that’s become a battering-ram.

The chances of one of my favourite racing games being revived are very slim. As we’ve seen countless times with EA, when they have two or more franchises in one genre, they’re not afraid to send the weaker one out to die. *cough, Titanfall 2 and Battlefield 1, cough*. However, in a market that seems a little too over-saturated with simulators, I think there would be room for a classic, nostalgic game to come in and let some gamers blow stuff up.