Good News of the Day: There Will Be Another Burnout Game

Craig Sullivan, the creative director of Criterion, has revealed in an interview with The Guardian that the developer will definitely be making another Burnout game at some point. While talking about Criterion's upcoming game, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Sullivan said:

We will make another Burnout game at some point. Obviously, as we're working on NFS we're thinking of really good ideas that aren't right for this series; there are ideas that we're going to explore with Burnout. And we wouldn't be making NFS or Burnout games if we didn't think the driving genre had a long shelf life and that we could push the boundaries.

Since I played the hell out of all the Burnout games when I was a kid, this news made me more than a little bit happy. However, it does make me wonder what sort of direction Criterion would take the series after having worked with the Need for Speed franchise. The interview suggests that the team would return to the open-world structure of Burnout Paradise, as Sullivan explains: 

We made closed track games in the past - three or four Burnout games - there's space for that kind of title in the market, but we're focused on pushing the genre forward and we think open worlds and player choice is where it's at. Driving around a track, be it real or fictional, there's only so much we can bring to that: you can improve the visuals - where else is there to go?

The sandbox structure of Burnout Paradise made it one of the most interesting Burnout games, but also one of the most flawed and divisive ones. I guess Need for Speed: Most Wanted, which will also be open-world, will demonstrate whether Criterion have refined sandbox racing or whether it still proves to be problematic. 

I would also expect an implementation of the Autolog system from Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit or something similar, as Sullivan says: "Look at the last five or six Criterion games: we strongly believe friends are the heart of it all, we know that Autolog is here to stay - all games should be connected"

I'm getting carried away. After all, nothing official has been announced, and Criterion could just stick with the Need for Speed franchise a while longer or focus on something completely different. Still, the prospect of a new Burnout game, whatever form it takes, is something to get excited about.