Here's what Pleasants had to say:
"We've taken the Burnout team and combined it with our Need For Speed franchise. So we now have that in our favor because that Burnout team is probably one of the more online-centric and notably high-quality game developers that we have out at Criterion."
Back when EA announced a pile of Need For Speed games to denote the game's different directions, a secret fourth NFS game was mentioned with no detail behind it. Looks like we now know who's working on that one. But what sort of game will it be? Surely they won't just make another Burnout game and slap the NFS name onto it, right? Right? No, seriously, they won't, right?
The specific mention of the "online-centric" nature of Criterion seems like it could make for an interesting non-crash-focused driving game. Those online features in Burnout Paradise and the team's persistent dedication to downloadable additions are a big part of why I've probably spent more hours playing Burnout Paradise than all of the Need For Speed games combined.
But if I may get cynical for a moment and jump the gun on a game that hasn't even been announced, let alone detailed, a Burnout-style game without a heavy focus on crashing doesn't sound like much fun.