A new Need For Speed is coming this year but it won't be at E3

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Ghost Games confirmed that a new game is coming but said it's too soon to punch the hype pedal.

It's been 25 years since the release of the first Need for Speed, and the last few of them haven't been a very smooth ride. The 2016 open-world reboot Need for Speed wasn't very good, and the 2017 followup Need for Speed: Payback, which brought back a single-player mode, also wasn't very good. Hopefully the next one, which developer Ghost Games confirmed today will be out later this year, will have a better run. 

"While we’ve had some great memories over those twenty-five years, we’re not here to look back and reminisce. We’ve got our eyes set firmly on the future," the studio wrote on Reddit. "But even while focusing on the future—especially this year—we’ve also thought a lot about what NFS means to you, and perhaps more importantly what we hope it will mean as we move forward.

"Cars naturally top the list. You could say that the cars and customization of NFS are the beating heart of what we do. Without either of these, NFS fails to exist as we know it. These two elements play a pivotal role in the series and are two aspects that we consider to be foundational, meaning they aren’t going anywhere because NFS wouldn’t exist without them." 

That seems like a reasonable position to take—cars have featured prominently in every previous Need For Speed release, if you can believe it—but the message also talks about less tangible elements of the series: Things like "essence" and "DNA," which "we're injecting straight into our next projection," and also "tradition," which is being treated somewhat differently. The hype engine for previous games has been fired up in June—which you can take to mean E3—but that will not be the case this time around.   

"Our goal is to deliver a truly memorable high-speed entry into the 25 years of NFS, rather than a series of promotional events. The game matters most—a sentiment we bet you share with us," Ghost Games wrote. "With that, know that we’re here, we’re building an amazing game that we can’t wait to show off, and the next time we talk, we’ll be packing our bags and heading south for the full unveiling."   

Andy Chalk
Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.