EA hosted a launch party for its new Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit game last night at the Avalon nightclub in Hollywood, and in among the celebrities and performers Chiddy Bang, we found Criterion Games' creative director Craig Sullivan right before he introduced the game to the audience. "It's been amazing," he said of the response to the game so far. "We're really really happy with it." Sullivan's been a fan of Need for Speed since the original 3DO game, and along with the rest of Criterion, he says he was thrilled to get the chance to make an official title. "When we got our shot at the title, everybody was really up for it and we just kind of went crazy."

We asked about DLC for the game, but Sullivan was still mum. "Given the fact that Criterion Games did a year of downloadable content for Burnout Paradise," he admitted, "I would be very surprised if we didn't do any followups or downloadable content for Need for Speed." But when pressed on what that DLC might be, he declined to comment until later on.

Still, the party was a good time -- EA invited about 5,000 members of the public to come enjoy the game in a club that only held about 2,000 people. You can see pictures of the event in the gallery below.