Fans of the Need for Speed games are upset to see that EA seems to be moving further and further away from the racing franchise. Need for Speed is one of the biggest racing franchises out there, offering an arcade-y and often very illegal racing experience for fans. The series has taken on a lot of different forms with street racing, Fast and Furious-esque action stories, and online-heavy. With that said, the series has slowed down in recent years. It used to be a very consistent and reliable series with new games yearly and then every other year once we entered the Xbox One and PS4 generation.
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We haven’t had a new Need for Speed game in 3 years since Need for Speed Unbound in 2022. It was a unique take on the series that infused a lot of character and personality into its overall aesthetic, but it wasn’t a smash hit by any means. Series developer Criterion Games has also been tasked with working on other games over the years, typically DICE’s games like Star Wars Battlefront and Battlefield. It has been confirmed that Need for Speed is taking a break while Criterion helps out on the development of Battlefield 6, much to the dismay of fans.
However, some fans are starting to fear that it’s not just a break. There were recent rumors that Need for Speed has a new game quietly in development, but that may not be true. 2013’s Need for Speed Rivals, a launch game for Xbox One and PS4, will have its servers shut down later this year. Additionally, Speedhunters, a car-culture website that was backed by EA as part of the Need for Speed brand, stopped posting back in April of this year. Speedhunters contributor Matthew Everingham noted that EA pulled funding for the site as Need for Speed has been shelved.
This has caused a lot of fans to worry that EA is moving away from the Need for Speed brand entirely as it shuts down fan-favorite games and pulls funding from parts of the IP. It’s clearly not the best of signs for the future, but we’ll have to wait and see what happens. Battlefield 6 has reportedly had a messy development and is likely all-consuming for the different teams working on the title, such as Criterion. Battlefield 6 is expected to release sometime before next spring, but it wouldn’t be surprising if Criterion stays on the project after launch to help with post-launch support.
All of this also comes as another famous racing franchise, Forza Motorsport, also lost support from Xbox. Developer Turn 10 Games still exists, but it was reported that the core team responsible for Forza Motorsport got let go. It’s a dire time to be a fan of racing games, but hopefully Need for Speed doesn’t stay gone.
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