Need for Speed News

Say it isn't so...

Mike
December 12, 2008 10:07:46 pm PST
4
General NFS, Undercover

1UP is reporting that the Need For Speed series may be in jeopardy....

Not more than a month after the release of Need For Speed: Undercover, the Electric Playground is reporting that Electronic Arts may be cutting the franchise entirely. The videogame web show claims that future titles in the series have been canceled.

EA director of communications Colin Macrae provided Electric Playground with the following comment:
"We're working through a process on people, products, and facilities at EA and don't have any announcements today."

Undercover, the most recent entry in the long-running franchise, was received fairly well but didn't crack the top 20 in the NPD sales charts for the month of November. Earlier in the year, EA CEO John Riccitiello had spoken of plans to split the Need for Speed development team into two groups, allowing for a 24-month cycle for creating each game rather than the 12 months cycle that he said "torture[d] a very talented group of people."

If this report is true, I'm disappointed that we'll never get the chance to see what could have come from giving this series a much-needed boost in development time to try out new ideas. And unless the publisher already has new plans for the creators of Need For Speed, we could be seeing further layoffs from EA soon, as has been previously predicted. We'll keep checking for official confirmation and word from EA on what's happening to the Need for Speed franchise and why.

I'll keep everyone posted if I find out anything more directly from EA.

Comments 4

Jaume0818 years ago

What if EA decided long ago to change the series name back when they released NFSU, I mean, there was an obvious production change between NFSHP and NFSU and they didn't change the name, but they could have done it.
Maybe they forget about NFS series but they will probably make a new racing game instead, IMO they should have done that when they had that opportunity instead of create a mixture of NFS fans, the ones that love European and American exotic cars and used to play (and still playing nowadays) the first period games and the ones that love customization and tunning Japanese cars that love the last installments.

shaken18 years ago

Sad news if its true.
but remember, we are in somewhat difficult economic times and this situation may only be temporary.
I'm sure EA will keep making racing games in the future whether they carry the NFS branding or not - they definitely have the resources and experience to do so.
I just hope the current NFS community won't dissolve..

1st genNFS fan18 years ago

good to say goodbye the game i used love so much.The NFS seris is recyled done over and over again expecting nothing new and nothing exciting.Same citysetting,same car list,same gameplay,same everything.So big deal NFS games are gone you can play juiced2 if you want the same game anyways.EA has destyoryed a great unque game when UG1 was made and the new guys never could be creative and innovative enogh to make world wide tracks around the world so they just made a city over and over.So i say to NFS sorry what EA did you and the NFS will be missed but better gone and history than keep on destroying the game with recycle games.What if EA didn't make all street racing games and listened to us in what we the players wanted would this happen?Goodbye NFS nice knowing you