New NFS in development

[jtace]

Something I spotted from 1up.com.

Along with news that Battlefield 3 is in development, Electronic Arts chief operating officer John Pleasants revealed another major announcement at the William Blair Growth Stock Conference today. A new game in the Need for Speed series (yes, another Need for Speed game on top of the already in development Need for Speed: Shift (pictured above), <A title="Need for Speed: Nitro" rel=nofollow>Need for Speed: Nitro">, and Need for Speed: World Online) is in the works at none other than Criterion Games, developers of Burnout. It was previously announced that four games in the series were in development, but the secret fourth game was supposedly being worked on at EA Black Box.


"We've taken the Burnout team and combined it with our Need For Speed franchise," Pleasants said at the conference according to The Feed (http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/696411/Criterion-Developing-Need-For-Speed-Game.html). "So we now have that in our favor because that Burnout team is probably one of the more online-centric and notably high-quality game developers that we have out at Criterion."
This of course casts some doubt on the immediate future of the Burnout series. At the same time, it's entirely possible that Criterion will continue to support the latest Burnout incarnation, Paradise, through DLC packs while also working on developing this newly announced Need for Speed. The Big Surf Island add-on that's coming tomorrow shows the size and scope of what can be added to the Burnout universe in lieu of a sequel.

[jtace]

And here's some more news on the subject.


At E3, the head of EA told us that Burnout and Need For Speed (http://kotaku.com/tag/need-for-speed/) won't be merged into one brand. Instead, team Burnout is shifting, for now, to make a new Need For Speed.

During my interview with EA CEO John Riccitiello (http://kotaku.com/tag/john-riccitiello/) last week at E3, I asked if EA's two big racing brands, Need for Speed and Burnout, would be merging into one.

No, Riccitiello said, but the Burnout team at EA's Criterion Games, led by Alex Ward, are making the next Need for Speed. "Alex is one of the people in the industry I would analogize to the great filmmakers, etc.," Riccitiello said. "He is a true creative visionary. We had a great fight about what the next Need For Speed would be like. Of course, he gets to win because it's his call. It's not that I'm without an opinion on it."

That still sounded like a possible Burnout-NFS merger to me, so I pressed Riccitiello on whether Burnout would be folded into Need for Speed.
"I don't think you can fold Burnout into Need for Speed, because a lot of people like Burnout," he said. "We don't have a plan right now for a separate major launch on Burnout, because the team doing it is working on a revolutionary take on Need for Speed. I don't know, if Paramount, in addition to owning Star Trek owned Star Wars, which isn't the way it is, I don't think you'd merge them."

I pointed out that Star Trek Wars could be an interesting movie, one I'd watch. "Captain Kirk meets R2D2," laughed Riccitiello. "It'd have to be in a Spaceballs kind of way."

Riccitiello did not say when Criterion's Need for Speed would be released. Need for Speed Shift and Need for Speed Nitro, which, collectively, will be released for all major platforms this year, are up next.