Ward and Sperry had founded Criterion Games in 2000 from Criterion Software, the firm that had developed the RenderWare middleware application used in many console titles. Criterion Games was acquired by Electronic Arts (EA) in 2004, becoming the studio's publisher. Among other titles, Criterion was known for the Burnout series which were a series of racing games that placed more emphasis on using collisions to knock out other racers and other aggressive strategies rather than more technical driving.