how to steal a game idea (and get away with it)

[@grandtheftaero1]

The developers have admitted to copying Thrill Drive. A 2019 chronicling of B1s development cycle written by Alex Ward and Fiona Sperry (seems to have only been sent out to people who were signed up to their company's newsletter) revealed that Burnout 1 was partially born out of a proposed Thrill Drive PS2 port. Alex even flew out to Japan to meet with Konami. They made the decision to not greenlight the port, so Criterion started prototyping a new game that would heavily derive from Thrill Drive. And that's what we'd eventually get.

[@grandtheftaero1]

The original quote: "In April 2000 I flew out to Tokyo to meet with Konami. We had a Japanese office there and Konami was a major Renderware customer. Yashushi-san set me up with a meeting to see if there was any interest in actually bringing the coin-op version of “Thrill Drive” over to the PS2. It was hard to follow along with everything that was being discussed. It wasn’t a yes or no, but a nod to follow up with their local staff in London. What I did learn though, was that they felt that “Thrill Drive” wasn’t a good game in their eyes, had never made any money and couldn’t really understand why that game was interesting to me. That was fine with me, I knew we could do something better and that just encouraged me even more. I flew home with renewed optimism! In May 2000 E3 was held in Los Angeles for the first time. The Criterion guys had a big stand and we were all based in a motel in Santa Monica. The show provided a chance to see the titles that would form the basis of the US and European PS2 launches. I remember that “Timesplitters” was being talked about as one of the games of the show and it was behind closed doors on the Eidos stand. We had a short and disappointing meeting with the folks from Konami Europe and there was no interest in talking any further. They had no power to make any development decisions. In my experience, the local offices of the big publishers never really have any power of their own when it came to signing titles to be published. You could spend a lot of time - which is ultimately wasted - setting up meetings, and then travelling to meetings without anything concrete ever coming from them. And unless you’re really meeting with the right people, it really can be a waste of everyone’s time."

[@f4micom]

holy shit thank you so much i tried to track down that newsletter for a year to see if it proved my theory right but it was GONE and i could not report on it

[@grandtheftaero1]

@@f4micom Yeah I still had it laying around among other things for a scrapped project I was working on. Man there's so much to spill regarding the development of these games, it's kind of crazy. Sticking to the first game for instance, a Dreamcast port was cancelled. Alex was even cheekily teasing the existence of a prototype disc for it a couple years ago during a one-off livestream. Were you actively following the release cycles of TFEs games by the way? (Seeing as you remember the newsletter) Then you'd know Alex is fucking nuts lmao. Man do I got stories to tell

[@f4micom]

i was! i am hyped for their projects, i love their stuff, this entire video is as i said not a criticism to him at all because i love his stuff and i don't think ripping off a concept/making a clone in concept of a game is necessarily a bad thing if you put your own twist on it (see enthusia and gran turismo, i love enthusia)

[@grandtheftaero1]

@@f4micom Cool to know actually, it was a niche minority who were actively following TFE as closely. I really hope it's not just me who remembers the Reddit groupchat lol. Alex Ward is a talented creative, that I cannot decry nor deny. I've just been told too much about the dude to properly recognize him for his achievements nowadays. My run-ins with him also haven't exactly been pleasant and for me have acted as confirmation for his terrible reputation in the games industry. He helped give us some incredible games though, that I'll concede to. He led an incredibly talented team.

[@4caddit]

Shoutout to Tommy Tallarico for creating the Burnout series

[@Itsumi456]

His mother is very proud

[@AJ-yc3bl]

Burnout paradise is clear of the rest

[@joweraDE]

Isn't that the guy who invented Sonic and skateboarding?

[@BluMndy]

The bad thing is he sometimes has to pee at night

[@emdotrod]

His mother is very proud

[@clementpruvost8670]

Never thought my printer stole a Konami game.

[@WohaoG]

I guess it just scanned and printed it

[@f4micom]

for some reason subtitles are stuck generating timings but they should be up soon! it is something on youtube's side so i can't do anything about it but wait qwq

[@LukaTV939]

same with the game category being Sega GT 2002 (if you didn't notice lol)

[@f4micom]

oh god will fix now thank you @@LukaTV939

[@JasonBoon02]

@@f4micom I also noticed a few mistakes in the subtitles. What is the best thing we can do to fix it? I miss that KZbin removed the feature to grant viewers to make subtitles... had quite some fun with that :(

[@f4micom]

@@JasonBoon02let em know where and i will fix them manually right now

[@はるか-i5p]

Seems KZbin doesn't really know Tony Hawk' Pro Skater series so it got multiple of them wrong, like around 19:03 and 23:55

[@SeagullAustralis]

What was said: _“This is the camera which took autofocus to the masses.”_ What I heard: _“This is the camera which took all those fuckers to the masses.”_

[@1997LotusEsprit]

Not far from truth

[@sloweia]

I can't stop hearing it

[@SeagullAustralis]

@@sloweia I was actually questioning what an “all the fuckers camera” is.

[@Davide0033]

oh. that's what she said lol i actually kept only hearing that

[@YOEL_44]

Yeah, her pronounciation can really f*ck with your brain if you're not used to it, I love it!!!!

[@ilmc922]

Love your collabs with MattKC. You both are two of my favorite KZbinrs.

[@pnku]

I was so happy seeing him here! (:

[@theautomaticfiend]

I thought that was mattkc!

[@ccf_1004]

5:46 > Netscape was like Chrome before I was even born Firefox was literally built on Netscape's code...

[@f4micom]

firefox killed the netscape star,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[@richardwilliams877]

I think I'm just about old enough (38) to have many used Netscape like once or twice, thought it was kinda interesting-looking and then went back to using IE...

[@purpleneons]

yeah but is Firefox the most popular browser right now?

[@Darkrut]

@@f4micom If you haven't already you should look into the browser wars. Seems right up your alley.

[@rushhq0]

​@purpleneons It should be lol its faster and better than chrome

[@HUNT3RdotME]

Little known fact: One of Criterion's employees pre-EA-buyout was a skilled programmer and producer by the name of Sean Murray. He left Criterion not long after it was bought by EA. I wonder what happened to him since then. Hope he's doing alright.

[@HTMLpopper]

Hello Games Sean Murray?

[@HUNT3RdotME]

@@HTMLpopper huge if true

[@mazda9624]

​@@HTMLpopperI just checked his LinkedIn. Yes it's *the* Sean Murray

[@robertoXCX]

That's kinda how I feel about the soundtrack composer Jerry Martin. He stuck around for a few years after EA bought Maxis, but after SimCity 4 he was basically gone. Hope he's doing well too.

[@Ferrari255GTO]

He clearly was bought by EA like everything else on this world, next thing you know fucking IKEA was bought by EA too...

[@pureorangeness]

Clicking on every single one of your videos I have no idea what’s going on, but by halfway through I’m fully invested in whatever wild goose chase you’re putting us through. It’s incredible

[@f4micom]

one of my main goals is to talk about stuff that i know is interesting and cool but that people would never think of searching and investigating on their own no trends no algorithm just vibes

[@Lumiesfinetoo]

@@f4micomwhat the internet should always be

[@Lumiesfinetoo]

respect

[@batmanuk1810]

the "who wants to be a millionaire" bit was genius lmao

[@mazda9624]

This was the most beautifully constructed Burnout/Criterion history video I've *ever* seen! The amount of new things I learned about one of my all time favorite video game series is astonishing. I'll also never get tired of hearing Burnout 2 praise on the internet. The game is too underrated! I haven't caught one of your videos in a while (thanks KZbin algorithm), so I'm not sure if you've been doing this for a while, but I loved seeing your face in a few scenes as well. It felt so different from the videos I'm used to. Also, the MattKC cameo was superb. Really everything about this video was excellent. I wish I could like it more than once!

[@VexAcer]

28:32 IIRC the "No GC port because no online" was basically just PR speak. The actual reasoning in short is that it just wasn't worth the effort based on hardware difficulties with the GC. Based on some forum posts from one of devs speaking on their exp with working w/ early Criterion anyway, but it makes way more sense than "err no online". While the GC's GPU is pretty capable, Burnout 3 actually has some pretty sophisticated systems in place for the traffic generation, crash deformation, physics, AI and certain effects which take place on the CPU (the sparks for example are dynamically calculated in real time) and the GC just couldn't keep up. It could've theoretically still ran on GC, but it'd have to be downgraded and Criterion didn't want something that looked & ran so much worse in comparison to the PS2/Xbox ver.

[@u1f98a]

Also: the PS2 didn't have a built in network connection either, only the Xbox did

[@VexAcer]

@@u1f98a When people say "the GC doesn't have online" they're referring to the lack of any real existing infrastructure or support rather than it being an optional addon. The PS2 technically didn't early on but did later on & by the time of Burnout 3 with Sony's DNAS. Nintendo on the other hand never cared or showed interest throughout the GC lifespan. On GC devs were basically on their own when it came to servers, accounts, etc. which wasn't worth implementing at all most of the time since GC was always guaranteed to be the least popular platform.

[@V1VISECT6]

​@@u1f98aSlims have a built in enthernet. The Online service for the PS2 wasn't even a thing when the ps2 launched.

[@xeienar]

Woah I remember playing Thrill Drive at my hometown's arcade inside the mall (Barcelona, Spain) The thing I remember the most is the music, it was very tense and the crashes actually made you feel bad, unlike burnout. Oh, and it was the only machine in the whole arcade that gave you 2 credits for one coin, so sometimes I would sneak in with no money and enjoyed some free runs. It was quite difficult, lmao. It felt like an outrun clone with licensed cars and a very weird difficulty at the time.

[@ferna182]

"1996 ... Like Netscape which apparently was like Google Chrome, before I was born" Damn... As a former user of Netscape Navigator back then, I feel personally attacked. And old. Really fucking old.

[@nasimfaheemalquadir]

It's more like Firefox because Firefox was initially designed by the devs of Netscape as an open-source version of Netscape.

[@ferna182]

@@nasimfaheemalquadir Yeah I know, Netscape became Mozilla (more or less) which are the ones behind Firefox. I was just quoting the video.

[@coletale]

i saw the plummcorp joke in the thumbnail gif man, that's not subtle at all. but i still love it.

[@f4micom]

they control denmark's sea ports after all

[@NeedForMadnessAuto]

Very impressive,hope i expect more racing game essays from you such as FlatOut To Trail Out

[@topsyandpip56]

I am mostly likely not a typical case, but I will say the DeArrow extension title for this video "History of RenderWare, Criterion Games and the Burnout Series" was why I clicked, and it was exactly that, but now I see the original title - I would probably have not clicked! Great video either way.

[@quasarlel]

currently smashing my canon EOS camera in a fit of rage how dare they let you print Bling-Bob without paying

[@stefanmuller4042]

Absolutely amazing. When i was a kid I had one of those game compilation CDs for my WIN 95 PC. For some reason it had CyberStreet on it and over the years that was the only "game" from that disc I remembered vividly. It bugged the hell out of me as a kid, that I couldn't figure out how to progress in the "game", just flying up and down an alley and entering a single room with a guy in it. I was sure I was just missing something. Over the years I tried figuring out what that "game" was, but was never able to find it. And here I am watching your video and the second I see the first frame of CyberStreet I know i finally found it. And not only that, I also find out that I wasn't just a stupid kid...it really is just a Tech Demo with nothing more to do. So over all another amazing video, but for me this was really more than that. Thank you for the closure on one of my childhood mysteries.

[@adalinesimonian]

f4mi strikes again with the exposé about how tommy tallarico created burnout and how billy mitchell was the #1 star player

[@NodokaHanamura]

As someone who was in Activeworlds (one of the first platforms/games to use Renderware) for years - and still visits every now and again, and grew up in the PS2 era, Renderware was a common name for me, having played GTA:SA on PC, A Scooby-Doo Game that used the tech, as well as some of the Tony Hawk games.

[@HTMLpopper]

Okay the editing in this didn't have to go so hard but damn you actually made me feel like I popped a cassette into the VCR to watch this video, very nice work!

[@richardwilliams877]

I PAUSED AND READ THE BIG BLOCK OF TEXT AND IT WAS QUITE INTERESTING Thank you.

[@aqua-bery]

My god, there's a dankpods reference in this video

[@MattKC]

great video!! but it would have been a lot better without that nerd at 1:35

[@f4micom]

NOOOOOOO

[@BrainSlugs83]

Heyyyy! Its a cross over episode with that lego island guy (who is also good at deleting laptops)! -- That's awesome!

[@higatowa]

F4mi x Wolfgang is the crossover I never expected honestly

[@slimetb]

Its gonna be a great day when the GOAT uploads

[@f4micom]

thank you so much!

[@EnigPartyhaus]

If you think SSX is the most 2000s game ever wait until you play The Urbz and then discover its sequel somehow turned into Sims 2 on consoles

[@bondthefifth]

So real and true, The Urbz on GameBoy Advance was a very compelling The Sims RPG

[@watch_kitty]

I thank the KZbin gods for recommending this video! Your edit and summary of events were well done, you earned yourself another sub mrow!

[@juanlanas5425]

Holy crap, the lightning matching is so good.

[@nicknorthcutt7680]

Dude burnout 3 is the most epic racing game ever. So many good memories playing burnout. And oh my god the soundtrack in the series was amazing. God i miss the early 2000's.

[@DarkKillers1000]

7:43 the graphics are too interesting to keep the video in the background :)

[@LEXXPortPatrol]

3:42 I think the synapses in my brain crossed over here because i misheard this as “Diddy Kong Graphics”

[@Koutsie]

been saying this for a long time but I do not understand how you've not gotten more subs already 😮 the storytelling, editing and the genuine self-curiousness you seem to have about the topic you're making a video of *is contagious!

[@Shyghost22]

im glad to see how much more popular you are now, when i first found your channel i think it was when you only had a few thousand subscribers, and youve got a lot more now and i think you deserve it! i think your videos are great, i really enjoy them :]

[@Syx7h]

SSX game possibly being the most "2000s thing ever made" is probably why I love them so much. I spent a lot of my time playing 3. I didn't know until last year that DJ Atomika is also in Burnout Paradise. I'll have to get around to checking it out. Thanks for the video.

[@draliththeartist2084]

Ssx is amazing. I wish we got another after the reboot.

[@konradlipiec3650]

It’s quite amazing how impactful a single game series can be to the entire video game space and how because of it, we have the games we do today. Amazing video!

[@TylerMcVicker1]

Plumcorp

[@Carhill]

I specifically stopped what I was working on to pause the video at 7:43 and read what you wrote. Also, love the gags. Keep up the awesome work Fami!

[@Richtr8]

this is an insanely technical market analysis video, great job. whilst i already sort of an instinctive sense that ps2 shovelware & shitty multiplats had to have come from somewhere, i never couldve traced this much deep information about its origin. of course, as usual, it's a hypercommercial western imitation of a japanese artesanal computer handicraft

[@yagomizuma2275]

Homosmurf pfp lol

[@legodano]

“but f4mi! alex was hired before they shipped deep fighter-” FOOLS! hath thou not read the note at 7:43! get to it, posthaste!

[@PardonJulianAssangeNow]

Love how MattKC did a colab with you!!

[@FeTetra]

whats crazy to me is just how long renderware lasted, i am a massive burnout fan and its so insane that this software to this day can work on the latest versions of windows, burnout paradise for pc is a fairly stable game on windows 10 and 11, and ironically enough, its remaster is horrifically unstable and barely works on most systems out of the box without modding

[@Alex_dlc]

One of my favorite gaming memories is spending an entire night playing Burnout Revenge with a friend. Driving so fast and crashing into everything on the road was so satisfying. That game was legendary. And I still listen to the music from it to this day. I’m singing these songs in my head as I write this. Unforgettable.

[@JasonBoon02]

F4mi, I always pause video if I see a bunch of text. I especially like it when people insert easter eggs :)

[@kelownatechkid]

This is a fantastic video with some great bits. The MattKC segment is perfect lol love the Regis impression.

[@gman_4815]

1:45 "-Помощь зала! Помощь зала!"

[@actons.]

31 minute f4mi video we are eating good tonight

[@dogbog99]

Let’s not forget just how good Driver was

[@YOEL_44]

Why the F did YT not recomend this channel to me way before, you're making bangers each time you upload!!!!

[@ToyotaSPRINTERTRUENO1986kouki]

Three things about this video... 1. The live-action bits are amazing. What a unique idea and style to shoot with a vintage camera! Plus the professional lighting and framing is spectacular. 2. It was my understanding Burnout 3 started development prior to Criterion working with EA? Since its Crash+Burn concept and unused original composed soundtrack are more in-line with Acclaim-style Burnouts. 3. The best Burnout ever made is obviously Revenge. But Takedown is a close second.

[@DerfJagged]

f4mi x MattKC crossover!!

[@ssupertutorial]

Mattkc in the video Is the best cameo ever 😂❤❤❤

[@kiirabu197]

been following you for a while and just wanna say, i absolutely adore the style of your videos and the recent increase in live action scenes (kinda like Scott The Woz, just retro), heck, even the aspect ratio alone is pretty cool to have these days. you're definitely a comfort youtuber of mine :3 (and yes, i did stop to read that wall of text-)

[@kiirabu197]

i just noticed that it's 4:3 only half of the time-

[@MastermindAtWork]

I played Thrill Drive 3 at a Round 1 Arcade and immediately got Burnout vibes from it. I had to look it up and come to find out, the first game came out in 1998. Despite being a clone, it worked and I'm glad it carved its own identity when Burnout 2 and definitely Burnout 3 and Revenge released.

[@imsometa]

I did the pause thing!!! Love this video, like all your stuff tbh. Take care f4mi. ❤

[@valfonso678]

this video is amazing, idk how it doesn't have more views. I finally have a new channel to binge watch

[@jcKobeh]

Paused to read the text. Really liking this new format with talking head segments done by you and the little sketches. Recording in appropiate locations and with props, and not juat in A Bedroom gives it a very much more polished feel.

[@kid_scarlet]

i appreciate the time & research you put into your videos! nice work!

[@novelezra]

RIP Sophie

[@gfhrtshergheghegewgewgew1730]

the only thing more impressivle than your blend of video editing, scriptwriting, and investigative journalism, is how slept-on you are

[@blblblblblblblblb]

1:00 Auto fuckers cameros LOL LMAO

[@szeliaimnine]

matt and f4mi collab is something i thought i dont need but the truth is different

[@gabriwm]

I were genuinely scared when I saw MattKC there

[@brute83302]

Amazing video!! The outro was so cute omg

[@ZarzenLetsPlay]

1:30 minutes into the video and 2 of my favorite niche youtubers collabing? very epic

[@MrMegaManFan]

MattKC in a f4mi video. Awesome! He'd be a great host for Millionaire.

[@sprintcharger]

The first Burnout is an interesting game to look back on with its Thrill Drive influences. Glad to see the story of the making of this game being talked about!

[@plume...]

Holy shit this was really well done. Good job f4mi, really good watch thanks

[@CodiMorphett]

Your enthusiasm for games is infectious

[@TheBoxyBear]

Always love the MattKC cameos

[@degeneracywatch5450]

Imagine EA going to Criterion and saying "we want to kill Tony Hawk"

[@greenhowie]

Silicon Graphics workstations are still really expensive, considering a laptop can do the same job now. I know there's a collector's market for them but it would be cool to see an indie game where using an actual SG for the prerendered backgrounds is a selling point.

[@RabbitEarsCh]

That EA decision also fucked up Japanese games for years to come. So many big JP companies used Renderware because it was the only licenseable game engine with competent JP-translated documentation (likely through the Canon connection, which I didn't know about before today!), and with it suddenly dying before the next generation Japanese games took a noticeable hit in graphical quality and stability for an entire generation until something with a competent Japanese translation came along. This is why Unity is so big for JP devs - Unreal documentation in Japanese has lagged everyone else for a long time. With Unity imploding also because of *a former EA president*, I feel like we just keep running into this once a generation...

[@lionocyborg6030]

The best Sonic game ever made runs on Renderware for example: Shadow the Hedgehog on Xbox.

[@summerlaverdure]

konami has done enough insidious stuff i think we can let this slide (into oncoming traffic of course)

[@summerlaverdure]

also i did pause to read. i never have video essays in the background

[@lorenzotedeschi9073]

This is so good imma put it on loop while i go drinking you deserve the views

[@kutayarcan911]

23:40 Holy sh*t it's the music from that Starsky & Hutch game! I got a disc from a Nesquik box when I was a kid, good times.

[@owRekssjfjxjxuurrpqpqss]

EA really doesn’t learn. After Burnout Takedown the publisher got more and more hands on and controlling. Now they just make boring need 4 speed games you can tell there’s no real passion for, because they’re being told what to make and how to make it by uncreative corporate suits. They could’ve had many more hit games if they just let criterion cook like they did for burnout 3. As a designer, I’ve seen orders from higher ups, marketing, etc completely destroy original concepts and then they act surprised when people are underwhelmed when the creatives deliver exactly what they asked for. This also is one of the main factors that leads to creative staff leaving a company if they don’t just check out mentally and feel a constant state of burn out (hehe pun).

[@CosmizEve]

As someone who has only played Burnout Paradise and only dabbled in the previous games a bit, this is a very in-depth and enjoyable! great video!

[@Alchemistake]

Dude i was suprised by matt kc then wolfgang then you hit me with starsky and hutch music

[@emdotrod]

f4mi with a cap just looks like Garth from Wayne's World if he used Wayne's cap

[@f4micom]

that was exactly the vibe i was going for

[@logokas]

How Burnout Paradise didn't get mentioned in this video is something I am struggling to understand.

[@f4micom]

Paradise comes from the EA era of Criterion, and I would like to touch on that on its own separate video :) I want to give Revenge and Paradise the attention they deserve and not just half-ass it

[@UD503J]

To show how much stay the EF lens mount has in the industry, it's one of the few mounts that have been adopted by other manufacturers and adapters are commonly made for cameras that actually film big Hollywood movies, like Blackmagic, Red, and Arri. There's an Arri Alexa Mini that our video shop uses that has an EF mount and Canon cine lens.

[@StuartR.]

You, Nick Robinson, and Summoning Salt all have the same vibe, and I love it! ❤

[@glitchy_weasel]

EA trying not to be the largest middle finger in the industry... impossible!

[@Professor_Genki7]

How come I've never seen this high quality channel before?

[@suntaxis]

I don't know if I am the only one, but I acrtually DO remember that Speedboat Game and, especially, Sub Culture, that was on lots of demo discs and magazines! Also, great story with a sad ending but hey, cool to know that I can give Burnout 2 or 3 a try and have fun.

[@TechProGabe]

Just came to say i love your videos! keep it up!

[@sppspharmdude]

90 day coke party? Everyday was a coke party, got to open them pupils for pictures. Fun video!

[@SteamPunk96]

It almost sounded like the devs were caged and locked in concrete in their offices.

[@ShapeyFiend]

I much prefer Burnout 1 and 2. With 3 and the later PS2 games they lowered the camera, reduced the draw distance, and it sort of became about crashing on purpose rather than racing. Crash mode was a fun diversion but then the whole game became crash mode.

[@markdebruyn1212]

I never bothered with crash mode, i was always found in the races

[@PHF28]

I wish the internet had more videos like this. You keep doing you, f4mi.

[@diskoBonez]

This is a whole facet of the game industry I was never aware of. Thinking about the implications of so many companies losing access to RenderWare in 2006, right when the Wii/PS3 launched. I can't stop thinking about how different that generation of games could have been if smaller development studios had access to the tools they needed to make 3D games. Imagine if EA obtained exclusive rights to Unreal engine today!

[@yaniv_akrish]

7:44 well, as you asked, I indeed letting you know that I paused the video to read all of this text, and that I don't keep the video on the background.

[@johnbillings5260]

You're doing awesome work on your videos. Keep it up!

[@thiscannotbeyourname]

"-and Netscape, which apparently was like Google Chrome before I was born." I need you to stop, please. I took damage from that.

[@Hurriedimpgames]

It's the case with any industry where something is copied by someone else and it becomes a runaway success. As the quote says "Good artists borrow, Great artists steal"

[@xythrr]

MattKC doing an American accent is uncanny

[@Т1000-м1и]

Someone literally made the crash mode into a mobile game I saw somebody play 5 years ago