Next Need for Speed in Development from Codemasters and Criterion
Electronic Arts Need for Speed franchise has been on a bit of a hiatus these past couple of years, as the publisher looks to retool and restore the racing series back to its glory years. The last few releases were handled by Ghost Games, a Swedish studio originally established as the lead developer on the Need for Speed franchise starting in 2013. While the games did find a fanbase, all three titles were met with mixed and average reviews, ultimately not living up to EA's lofty expectations.
In fact, Need for Speed Heat was the final game with Ghost Games as the lead developer. Following the game's launch in 2019, Ghost Games was downsized, renamed back to EA Gothenburg, and made into an engineering support studio with a focus on the Frostbite Engine. The Need for Speed franchise was handed over to Criterion Games, a studio with a long line of racing experience thanks to the Burnout franchise and more recent work on Need for Speed Hot Pursuit and Most Wanted.
Rumor: New Need for Speed Game May Be Next-Gen Only
However, a new opportunity seemingly appeared in 2021 when EA purchased Codemasters, creators of iconic racing franchises like Dirt, F1, Grid, and Colin McRae Rally. As expected, Electronic Arts has quickly shuffled the newly acquired Codemasters onto the Need for Speed franchise. In a join announcement on Twitter, Codemasters confirmed that its Cheshire studio is currently working on the next Need for Speed alongside Criterion.
In fact, Codemasters Cheshire and Criterion are merging to become one Criterion studio with two location hubs to help facilitate development. The announcement continues by saying that the integration builds off of the close working partnership the two studios already share and that the
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