Need for Speed Developer Criterion Games Fully Working on Battlefield, but Racing Franchise Will Return

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Electronic Arts has paused all work on its popular Need for Speed franchise and aligned developer Criterion Games to work on the next Battlefield title, a report claimed Monday. The development comes as EA shared pre-alpha gameplay footage of the next Battlefield game and announced its plans for a new community testing program. While all of Criterion is now aiding development on the military shooter franchise, EA intends to return to the NFS franchise at some point.

Vince Zampella, head of Respawn Entertainment at EA who is now in charge of Battlefield, told Eurogamer Monday the NFS developer was now working on the shooter.

“The Need for Speed team at Criterion are joining their colleagues working on Battlefield. As a company, it was important to us to take the last year to listen to our Need for Speed community and use their feedback to create content for Unbound,” Zampella told the publication.

“With an increased understanding of what our players want in a Need for Speed experience, we plan to bring the franchise back in new and interesting ways,” he added.

Back in September 2023, EA had announced that Criterion would be joining the EA Entertainment fold at the company, overseen by Zampella. A majority of the studio would be working on the next Battlefield.

“As we've said before, we're all-in on Battlefield. Today, Criterion is added to our world-class Battlefield studios dedicated to ushering in a new era for the franchise. The majority of the team will be working alongside DICE, Ripple Effect, and Ridgeline that are led by Byron Beede, GM of Battlefield,” Zampella had said at the time.

However, the executive had said a core group at Criterion would continue to work on what was next for the NFS franchise, as well. Since then, Need of Speed Unbound, the last game in the NFS franchise, has received additional content updates.

Criterion has worked on the Need for Speed franchise since 2010 and has assisted development on Battlefield games since 2016's Battlefield 1.