EA: Need for Speed to Play 'Meaningful Part of our Future', Plans to Expand, Extend and Enhance Franchise with Codemasters
With the closure of lead Need for Speed development studio Ghost Games in February 2020 and the currently developer Criterion Games putting their entry on hold until 2022 to assist development of this year’s upcoming Battlefield title, many have been lead to believe - ourselves included - that EA don’t seem to care much for the street racing franchise anymore.
However, according to EA CEO Andrew Wilson, the franchise is far from forgotten at EA, and that it will ‘absolutely be a meaningful part’ of the publishing giant’s future.
During Electronic Arts’ Q4 2021 Earnings Call, while a big focus was placed on the upcoming Battlefield title which Criterion are now assisting DICE to launch later this year, during a Q&A section, Wilson was queried about the decision to shift Criterion on to Battlefield and what the plans are for Need for Speed in the future.
“[…]Having Criterion who have delivered some of the most amazing experiences in our history and have worked really closely with DICE in the past, come together to help realize the fullness of that ambition was just a no-brainer for us this year.
What has also happened, of course, is we had acquired Codemasters and a number of new racing games, including the F1 franchise, which is shaping up to be really strong this year.And it was an opportunity for us to really think more broadly about our holistic racing strategy. Need for Speed will absolutely be a meaningful part of our future.
We actually think there is -- with the culmination of EA and Codemasters, we can actually expand and extend and enhance an interesting franchise. But those two things together meant that having Criterion work on Battlefield this year was absolutely the right choice for us.”
Criterion’s Need for Speed title was slated for Holiday 2021, before being delayed to late 2022 to assist Battlefield development first.
What’s curious to note is that despite shifting Criterion to assist in the development of Battlefield one of the main reasons for delaying the next Need for Speed, according to Wilson, the acquisition of Codemasters, their racing IPs and the launch of F1 2021 also factored into this decision too.
Wilson had previously mentioned of a racing game title launching this year that could potentially ‘cannibalize’ Need for Speed sales if the two were to launch together, however many assumed this meant Codemasters had a street racing-esque game in development for console and PC, not another yearly Formula 1 title.
Interestingly, Wilson does hint that EA plans to leverage the Codemasters talent to help with the Need for Speed IP, suggesting that with the culmination of EA and Codemasters the two can “expand and extend and enhance an interesting franchise.”
With three main studios currently developing the next Battlefield - DICE, DICE LA and Criterion Games - its possible we could see assistance from several Codemasters studios when Criterion returns to developing Need for Speed after the launch of Battlefield this year.
While it is uncertain to say for sure what the future holds for Need for Speed, with the shift in development teams and handling in projects now creating the longest gap period between mainline Need for Speed releases since the franchise’s 1994 debut, its reassuring to hear EA still has big plans for it. What those plans are exactly, I guess we’ll have to wait until 2022 to find out…
[Source: Electronic Arts Q4 2021 Earnings Call]