Criterion Software Limited
| Acquired | |
| ISIN | 🆔 |
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded 📆 | January 1993 |
| Founder 👔 | |
| Headquarters 🏙️ | , , England |
Area served 🗺️ | |
Key people | Adam Billyard David Lau-Kee |
| Products 📟 | |
| Members | |
Number of employees | 90+ (2017)[1] |
| Parent | Electronic Arts (2004–present) |
| 🌐 Website | criteriongames |
| 📇 Address | |
| 📞 telephone | |
Criterion Software Limited was founded in 1993 by Adam Billyard and David Lau-Kee within Canon Research Europe (CRE) in Guildford, Surrey, United Kingdom.
History[edit]
In 1993, Criterion Software Limited launched and specialised in the development of the RenderWare family of middleware technology, initially Graphics, followed by Audio, AI and Physics[2] components.[3]
RenderWare is a game engine available on all platforms including PC, Sony Playstation, Nintendo GameCube, Microsoft Xbox as well as mobile devices.[4] During the early development, Criterion worked with ISVs such as CAD companies, Autodesk, Solidworks and Microstation to integrate RenderWare into their products. In 2000, Criterion software announced at SIGGRAPH that it would provide RenderWare to Sony for use with its GScube development system .[5]
Criterion Studios was formed as a division within Criterion Software in January 1996, later being renamed to Criterion Games. It was initially created by the Criterion Software leadership team David Lau-Kee, CEO, Adam Billyard, CTO and Mike King, CMO.[6]
Criterion Software grew from 2 founders to 240+ employees, opening offices in March 1993 in the Research Park in Guildford area, also in Derby after being acquired in September 2000, and eventually expanding globally to Tokyo in January 1998, Austin TX in June 2000 (which was run by Andy Price), and Paris in November 2000.
In 2004, Electronic Arts acquired Criterion Software Limited,[7] later closing the Derby office in the summer of 2006. Criterion declared that RenderWare would continue to be made available to third party customers, however shortly after EA decided to withdraw RenderWare from the commercial market.[8]
In November 2007, co-founder David Lau-Kee VP and CEO of Criterion Software made the decision to leave Electronic Arts to concentrate on investment and advisory activities within the games industry.[9] He subsequently co-founded and is General Partner of Lvp, the leading early-stage games VC, which includes Unity and Supercell amongst its alumni.[10]
Adam Billyard also left Electronic Arts as CTO of EATech in 2007 to pursue other projects.[11] He founded LightUp and LightUp Analytics in 2009, to deliver real-time previz and lighting analysis to companies such as Pixar.[12] Adam Subsequently worked on early GPU streaming technology and began work on early prototypes for Polystream in 2014.
References[edit]
- ↑ Grubb, Jeff (April 17, 2017). "PSVR X-Wing Mission studio Criterion is working on Star Wars: Battlefront II". VentureBeat. Retrieved June 14, 2017.
- ↑ "Criterion Software Announces RenderWare Physics". Game Career Guide. December 3, 2003. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
- ↑ "Criterion Software Announces the RenderWare Platform". Gamasutra. March 14, 2001. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
- ↑ "About RenderWare". RendeWare.com. 2005. Retrieved March 26, 2020.
- ↑ "PS2 Gets RenderWare". IGN Entertainment. July 26, 2000. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
Criterion Studios, a subsidiary of Canon, announced today that they will be making their Renderware technology available for use with Sony's GSCube development system for the PS2.
- ↑ "Criterion Studios: About Us". Criterion Studios. 1997. Retrieved March 26, 2020.
- ↑ "Games giant EA spreads its wings". BBC News. July 29, 2004. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
- ↑ "EA's Gordon Talks Renderware Failure, Ubisoft Acquisition". Gamasutra. May 23, 2007. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
- ↑ "David Lau-Kee Joins Unity Technologies". Unity. January 12, 2009. Retrieved March 27, 2020.
- ↑ "London Venture Partners, About Us". LVP. 2020. Retrieved March 26, 2020.
- ↑ "Criterion Co-Founder becomes PlayJam CTO". Gamasutra. May 29, 2012. Retrieved March 26, 2020.
- ↑ "LightUp, About Us". LightUp. 2020. Retrieved March 26, 2020.
Thousands of professionals, from one-person architecture practices to movie-makers at Pixar, choose the LightUp plugin for SketchUp to instantly illuminate their models and show their work in the best possible light.
Further reading[edit]
"First PlayStation 2 3D Library Announced". IGN. March 4, 1999. Retrieved March 26, 2020.
Caie, Martin (March 23, 2004). "RenderWare 4 for Next Generation". Gameplanet. Retrieved March 26, 2020.
"Criterion Gets Physical". IGN. July 3, 2003. Retrieved March 26, 2020.
Hermida, Alfred (August 28, 2003). "Next gen consoles spark concern". BBC News. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
"EA and Criterion Gift RenderWare Software Development Kit to Universities Worldwide". BusinessWire. March 9, 2005. Retrieved March 27, 2020.
External Links[edit]
Criterion Software at Crunchbase
Criterion Software Limited[edit]
This article "Criterion Software Limited" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Criterion Software Limited. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
