Need for Speed Heat PS4

The arcade racing series Need for Speed will live to fight another day, but you shouldn't expect a new entry to arrive any time soon. As part of today's Battlefield Labs announcement, it was confirmed that franchise developer Criterion is one of four teams within EA that are coming together to form Battlefield Studios, and all will focus on the next FPS title.

Eurogamer asked EA whether this means Need for Speed is as good as dead, and received the following response: "The Need for Speed team at Criterion are joining their colleagues working on Battlefield." The statement then comments on how the most recent game, Need for Speed Unbound, has received a fair number of updates since its release and taking player feedback into account.

EA then confirms that "we plan to bring the franchise back in new and interesting ways", but since Criterion doesn't have anyone working on the series currently, any new game is a significant number of years away. In September 2023, Vince Zampella said a "core group" of developers within Criterion was working on "what's next for the franchise".

For now at the very least, it appears those plans have been put on ice. A Need for Speed: Most Wanted remake was also outed by a voice actor from the original game in 2023, but that project hasn't come to light — if it was indeed real.

[source eurogamer.net]