Need for Speed’s Fate Sealed As Fans Mourn End of the Franchise

Need for Speed fans are mourning over what appears to be the end of the franchise, following a new studio update from the developer.

Need for Speed is one of the oldest racing game series of all time, dating all the way back to 1994. And since then, it’s boasted 25 unique installments in the franchise.

However, we haven’t seen a new Need for Speed game since 2022’s Need for Speed: Unbound, and it looks like we might not be seeing one for quite some time.

As spotted on the Need for Speed Reddit page, Criterion Games, the studio that worked on Burnout and then went on to develop the last few Need for Speed games, has officially been renamed to “Criterion - A Battlefield Studio”.

Criterion is one of the four companies that has made up Battlefield Studios, a coalition of developers formed by Electronic Arts which have developed content for the upcoming Battlefield 6.

So it looks like this confirms that Criterion is now focused solely on Battlefield, and won’t be developing any future Need for Speed games. This has gone over about as well as you’d expect from Battlefield 6 fans.

“First comes the rename, then the studio closure after Battlefield fails to meet EA's totally unrealistic expectations,” reads a comment on the Gaming Reddit page.

“EA has all these amazing, talented studios and properties people would love to play... but they'll always have knee-jerk reactions to the games somehow 'underperforming' against completely unrealistic expectations,” reads another comment.

“Is it possible to make a new, proper Burnout title that meets the fans' hopes and is made using the right tools to hit a reasonable budget? Absolutely it is, and EA could do that and keep it sustainable and make money. They could do the same with Battlefield, instead of forecasting it to have a bajillion players and anything less is a failure.”

Some fans are still hopeful that the series could get a new developer, however.

“They could assign a new studio for NFS, but I have no idea if that's in EA's cards, probably not,” reads a comment on the Need for Speed Reddit page.

After all, Need for Speed has already gone through multiple developers across its 30+ year history. Prior to Criterion, developers like Slightly Mad Studios, Firebrand Games, and EA Black Box had worked on the series.

Maybe it’s time for Codemasters to do something other than annual Formula 1 titles.