 The "Burnout" series at the time was already seen as a less lucrative property compared to the "Need for Speed" series by EA, and further, Ward found that EA was not amendable to the open world idea he presented.Ward took steps that he could to make "Burnout Paradise" a desirable game prior to its release to show his superiors that his ideas were sound, which proved out when the game sold more than one million copies within the first three months of release.