Update: The Need for Speed announcement is now confirmed for Thursday 6th October at 4PM BST (UK time)
NFS 2022 reveal. Thursday. 8am PT/5pm CEST #needforspeed https://t.co/wjeoHkKRFv pic.twitter.com/bOTCl1ZGME
— Need for Speed (@NeedforSpeed) October 4, 2022
EA has started teasing some kind of Need for Speed announcement, presumably for a brand new entry in the series coming from the revived Criterion Games.
you think they're ready, @needforspeed?
— Electronic Arts (@EA) October 3, 2022
It’s been a few months since we last heard anything about the next Need for Speed, and that came in the form of rumours about the game’s visual stylings. Back in April, VentureBeat’s Jeff Grubb claimed that it will be “photo-realistic, but it’s going to have on top of that, anime elements.” He continued, “You know when you see a car commercial or something like that and the car’s driving around, but then cartoons flames and stuff are flying off it? That’s the kind of the aesthetic that they seem to be going for.”
The next Need for Speed game has been in development for several years now at Criterion Games. Following the 2019 release Need for Speed Heat, EA decided to downsize their Sweden-based Ghost Games studio and fold the UK-based side of the team back into Criterion Games.
Back in 2020, EA then teased the new generation of tech that would power Need for Speed and a few other titles in development, but Criterion was then shifted over to assist in the final year of development for Battlefield 2042, putting their Need for Speed project on hold.
Then, earlier this year, it was announced that Codemasters Cheshire is now be a part of Criterion Games, the studio which can trace its lineage back through the EA Codemasters acquisition in 2021 to its original form as Evolution Studios at Sony, where they made MotorStorm and Driveclub.
We’re looking forward to seeing how this game is coming together, even if it does sound like there’s been a fair bit of disruption to its development, and will be keeping an eye out for the announcement trailer in the not-too-distant future.
Source: Twitter
