Need for Speed Unbound, the 2022 racer from Criterion Games that helped cement the series as one of EA’s longest-running franchises ever, introducing cel-shading, graffiti art, and other new features to players as part of a 25th installment, may not be getting a successor any time soon, according to new statements that Vince Zampella, Head of Respawn & Group GM for EA Studios Organization, sent out to various gaming outlets today.
“The Need for Speed team at Criterion are joining their colleagues working on Battlefield,” Zampella revealed before going on to assure players that while the franchise isn’t dead, EA has nothing to share about the next game yet aside from the fact that it should be “new and interesting.”
“As a company, it was important to us to take the last year to listen to our Need for Speed community and use their feedback to create content for Unbound,” explained Zampella. “With an increased understanding of what our players want in a Need for Speed experience, we plan to bring the franchise back in new and interesting ways.”
The news from Zampella comes nearly three months after the release of Need for Speed Unbound’s Vol. 9: Lockdown update, which, while delivering new features that include an all-new PvPvE multiplayer mode, will apparently be the game’s last.
“IGN has confirmed with EA that this marks the end of new content for Need for Speed Unbound, and the Need for Speed team within Criterion is now, alongside the rest of the studio, working on Battlefield,” reads a report.
“Need for Speed and Burnout developer Criterion is now entirely focused on developing EA’s next Battlefield game, the publisher has told Eurogamer – but there are still plans for the studio to return to its racing roots at some point in the future,” corroborates another.
“Welcome to Battlefield Labs,” EA and the Battlefield team wrote to players today, introducing them to a new program that was designed to ensure that the next installment of its military FPS series would live up to the quality of fan-favorite titles that include Battlefield 1 and Battlefield 3.
“We’d like to invite you to join us for our most ambitious community development collaboration ever. This is an opportunity to provide feedback, validate the future of Battlefield, and have a direct and lasting impact on the next generation of Battlefield games,” EA explained, confirming that sign-ups for Battlefield Labs are open today.
Discussion (18 replies)
Join Discussion →NFS most wanted or was it underground... was their best work and nothing has touched it since. At least in my opinion.
I do miss fun police chases in forza horizon though. Like we had back then in NFS.
Maybe they should break new gaming ground by creating "NFS 4x RTS ARPG" to get as many acronyms in as possible.
The last NFS I played, and it has been a ton of years, was NSF: Porche Unleashed that, AFAIR, didn't include police chases
I enjoyed porche unleashed. Buy all the cars in the beginning and sit on them late game they are all super valuable.
NFS Died to me after Hot Pursuit 2. I understand many people loved Underground but it does not represent what NFS used to: Racing unattainable, expensive and exclusive cars on scenic routes. And not ricing up your Ford Focus then pretending to be fast and furious.
The only game that was somewhat of a return to form was "The Run" but that also had its own issues, like the asinine drafting mechanic and the blatantly scripted chases and the ludicrous catch-up. Still it was more decent than anything else NFS did since HP2.
As for Criterion, good riddance. They should never be allowed near any racing game.
Pretty much agree on all the above. The hot pursuit games were my favorites and really tried to get into The Run because I've been wanting to play a race game that traverses the U.S. with good graphics and play mechanics but it didn't really do the trick and I've basically given up on finding one now but the RC car game looks kind of fun.
Id love a solid racing game built similarly to ms flight simulator problem is the LOD needed is WAY higher.
I hadn't thought of it that way but yep, that's what I'm looking for as well.
I don't think LOD really matters. All you need for a good racing game is good physics, good progression and respect of car culture instead of trying to make it brainless hipster crap doing 10 second long races with fireworks just in case they get bored still.
I've played the hell out of Forza Horizon 5. Yeah it's arcadey. But it's fun.
Haven't played a NFS game since Hot Pursuit. I tried their latest one and couldn't get it to work right with my wheel and pedals. It was weird, I'd get great FPS until I stepped on the throttle then FPS would tank to like 40-60. Made no sense.
Test Drive for life baby
Don't look at the new test drive unlimited... dumpster fire.
What I mean is the Level Of Detail. I don't spend thousands of dollars... like inexpensive used car money on my computer to play games that look like they belong on a NES.
But I agree you need good physics and progression. But level of detail matters as well. Give me an accurate cross country driving game... some silly options to ramp over some rivers and do some fun dukes of hazard moments... I'll be a happy camper. But it can't look like garbage either.
and I'll be honest... I don't care if it needs 500 gig of hard drive space and a high speed always on connection to stream content.
Yeah, I tried the beta, and somehow they managed to completely miss the mark with that one.
I know what LOD stands for :D And that's at the bottom of my priority list. If I can enjoy the original Gran Turismo still, then nothing they make today will be an issue graphics wise.
What I'd want is either the Test Drive 1-2-3 formula, a cross country race divided into 10-50km long sections like rally stages, but on open roads with regular traffic. But I really don't want any silly stuff.
Or option B a Street Rod like game set in the 60-70s street racing, buying used cars and upgrades. I don't even know who has the rights to the name. But of course someone can make it without the name as well.
I don't care about the former, I have 10TB of SSDs, but with the quality of internet connection I have any always online game is no bueno.
My internet randomly cuts out sometimes 3-4 times a day, or slows down to a crawl. Rebooting the modem puts it back to normal, sometimes it even reboots on its own before I touch it. But it takes at least 5 minutes, no online game can survive that gap in connectivity. And reporting the issue is useless, all they do that the operator logs in remotely to my modem and says everything looks fine to me. OFC it is fine now. And if I cry enough they might send out a technician who replaces the modem, which they done already and it didn't do squat.
Yea that sucks. And I feel for you in that regard. I know I'm lucky to have stable internet let alone stable 2 gig internet.
I don't even have 2gig LAN. But my internet wasn't always like this, only since one of the local oligarchs took over the cable company :mad: