EA Hints At Annual Need for Speed Games Following Codemasters Acquisition
While the ink is yet to dry on EA’s Codemasters acquisition deal, it seems the company has some bold plans to dominate the racing game space, including the possibility of reverting back to yearly Need for Speed titles after the release of Criterion’s NFS game this year.
During EA’s Q3 FYI earnings call earlier this week, CEO Andrew Wilson spoke at length about how the acquisition sees tremendous growth for EA, going as far to say they plan to build a “racing powerhouse” adding the amazing teams and IPs to their racing portfolio.
However the most interesting tidbit comes from the FAQ after the earnings call, with Wilson suggesting that the Codemasters acquisition could lead to more frequent and potentially annualized Need for Speed games again.
When asked whether the Codemasters acquistion could result in EA releasing a track, rally and street racing game yearly, Wilson responded with the following:
“When I think about taking that collection of talent and pointing them at Need for Speed, pointing them at FORMULA ONE, pointing them at GRID, pointing them at DiRT and thinking about how all of that might happen with regular launches of those titles with really strong live services wrapped around them […], I think the opportunity is really, really strong.
And so you should imagine that as we think about this, Need for Speed, which is already one of the leading racing franchises that we launch every other year, we think there might be opportunities around growth of releases and certainly growth of that title.”
While Wilson is not explicitly suggesting Need for Speed will return to being a yearly, annualized franchise, the added talent of the Codemasters teams will certainly assist in growing the Need for Speed franchise, which could potentially lead to Codemasters making their own title besides Criterion in the future during their non-release years.
Currently, the UK-based Criterion Games is working on a next generation Need for Speed game which is expected to launch later this year, however was not mentioned during EA’s earnings call. It is expected to launch as one of the 6 titles EA has planned for this year, including the next Battlefield game.
With the Codemasters acquisition expected to go through very soon, could we see several Codemasters teams being tasked to assist Criterion in launching this year’s Need for Speed game?
Following the acquisition, EA will expand their racing portfolio from Need for Speed, Real Racing and the long-dormant Burnout franchise with IPs such as F1, DIRT, GRID and Project CARS.
While Slightly Mad Studios, which is owned by Codemasters, has an agreement with Universal Pictures, EA might have the potential to publish Fast & Furious titles, but that remains unconfirmed.
Would you be excited to see Need for Speed games launch yearly again rotating between Criterion and Codemasters, or do you think it’d be better for Criterion to continue releasing every two years following Ghost’s timeline but with DLC and expansion assistance from Codemasters?
[Source: Electronic Arts Q3 FY21 Earnings]