Need for Speed is effectively on hold while Criterion musters entirely around Battlefield, but EA assures players the racer will return in 'new and interesting ways'

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Need for Speed fans are in for a long wait before getting behind the wheel of a new game from the series. Developer Criterion Games, which has handled EA's venerable racer for years, has now shifted entirely over to work on EA's next Battlefield title. In a statement to Eurogamer, Battlefield's three-star general Vince Zampella explained that "The Need for Speed team at Criterion are joining their colleagues working on Battlefield."

This was already the case for a large portion of Criterion, which shifted its focus onto Battlefield in September 2023. A small portion of the team remained in Need for Speed's garage, however, to provide support for the series' latest entry, Need for Speed Unbound. As Zampella elaborates in his statement: "It was important for us to take the last year to listen to our Need for Speed community and use their feedback to create content for Unbound."

Unbound has received consistent updates since launching in December 2022, including a 'Cops vs Racers' mode inspired by the well-liked Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, which was folded into Unbound last August. Yesterday, however, the remaining team explained it was ending live-service support for Unbound, stating "we won't be updating the game or making any more changes, but rest assured your notes and comments are being captured and will help inform the future."

Ultimately, this means we likely won't see another Need for Speed game for several years. That said, Zampella claims EA remains committing to pursuing new games in the series in the future. "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."

Need for Speed: Unbound was a somewhat divisive entry in the series. Phil Iwaniuk called it "a deeply worthy addition to the genre that lacks all arcade kicks" in his review, while Morgan was wowed by its cartoonish visual effects when he took it for a spin around the same time. It wasn't received quite so warmly by the broader community, however, garnering a 'mixed' rating on Steam out of over 36,000 reviews.

There's a fair amount of reshuffling going on at EA right now. Following the underperformance of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, BioWare has been downsized and refocused entirely around Mass Effect, laying off several of its most senior writers and designers in the process. It's a move that was lambasted by Baldur's Gate 3's publishing director, who lamented the loss of institutional knowledge from BioWare, and stated that 'On a pirate ship, they'd toss the captain overboard'. We did get a little glimpse of Criterion's work on Battlefield recently, however, with a whopping 10 seconds of pre-alpha gameplay shown during EA's reveal for its new playtesting initiative Battlefield Labs.