Need for Speed game reportedly out this fall, won’t come to all systems
According to well-sourced reporter Jeff Grubb, EA and Criterion Games plan to launch the next Need for Speed title this fall—and it won’t come to as many consoles as you might expect.
Grubb shared the news on the latest episode of subscriber-only Giant Bomb podcast Grubbsnax, with VGC providing a transcript of his comments.
“Need for Speed is still coming this year,” Grubb said. “That’s true, that game should be coming in November. If you are a Need for Speed fan who has bought a next-gen console, here’s some news; it’s next-gen only. They are shifting to next-gen only.”
Next-gen, in this case, refers to the what’s technically now the current generation of consoles, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. If Grubb is correct, this new Need for Speed title would be the first EA-published game to skip the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. In fact, the company has only officially announced one title as a current-gen exclusive: the Dead Space remake arriving early next year.
EA’s approach largely reflects that of the industry as a whole. The new consoles remain tough for many people to purchase due to ongoing chip shortages and high demand, so a game that isn’t cross-generation is limited to a much smaller potential playerbase.
Criterion took over development on Need for Speed in February 2020 (remember February 2020?), when EA opted to turn then-current franchise developer Ghost Games into a support studio, renaming it EA Gothenburg.
Then, in March of last year, Criterion announced it would postpone its work on the racing series so its developers could help out on Battlefield 2042.
The last Need for Speed game, Heat, released in 2019 to middling reviews. Criterion’s last entry in the series as lead studio was 2012’s Need for Speed: Most Wanted.
