EA Delays Next Need for Speed to 2022, Criterion to Assist Battlefield Development Instead
EA have officially delayed the release of their next mainline Need for Speed release to 2022, with the studio Criterion Games now assisting DICE to help launch their upcoming Battlefield title scheduled to launch on PS5/ Xbox Series X later this year.
In an interview with Polygon, EA chief studios officer Laura Miele announced that due to pandemic conditions and with EA’s latest Codemasters acqusition said to launch a racing title for them later this year, reassigning Criterion to help work on Battlefield was a “rational call.”
“There’s no way we would have made a decision like this without including [Criterion] and discussing this with them first, and the impact that they could have on [Battlefield],” Miele said. “They’ve worked on [Star Wars] Battlefront, they’ve worked on Battlefields, and they have a really tight, close collaborative partnership with DICE. I’m really confident that this is going to be a pretty positive win for them.”
Miele believes that rather than rush Criterion to launch a new Need for Speed game to market by the end of this year, when it could be “cannibalized” by a Codemasters release around the same time, Criterion’s capabilities would be better spent on Battlefield.
Miele stressed that neither Battlefield or Need for Speed franchise are in trouble, nor that Criterion have been taken off the project, with the team said to return to Need for Speed development after their work on the latest Battlefield game. She also interestingly confirmed that EA does not plan to shut down the series or move development to Codemasters, but that the next NFS will launch on both current and previous gen consoles.
“Making games is one of the more sophisticated, and complicated, forms of media that exists, and it requires creative energy and connection to team members,” she said. “I think that there’s been, you know, fatigue and some burnout, working from home. A lot of that even has to do with just the needs that people have with their families; some people are taking care of their kids at home [while they work]. So our productivity is not as high, and then the creative connection and creative energy isn’t as high when they’re working from home.”
Early last year, EA had closed their major Need for Speed development studio Ghost Games, siting their reason for a lack of talent acquisition in the racing space over in Sweden - bringing former development studio Criterion Games back to making full games again and handing them the rights to Need for Speed going forward.
While it sucks, it seems we’re going to have to wait a very long time until we get a proper Need for Speed game. Lets hope it was worth it, EA…