Electronic Arts can’t make up their mind which studio should be responsible for making new Need For Speed games. The most recent series entries with the latest Need For Speed: Heat was developed by Ghost Games. However, EA decided to dissolve the studio and bring the franchise back to Criterion.
The news landed on GamesIndustry.biz site where EA representative confirmed that Ghost Games will rebrand to EA Gothenburg and renew its focus as an engineering hub in order to support a variety of games in EA’s portfolio.
“The engineering expertise in our Gothenburg team, some of whom are architects of the Frostbite engine, is vital to a number of our ongoing projects, and they would remain in that location. Outside of the engineers and those that we plan to transfer to other positions, there would be 30 additional staff in Gothenburg, and we would hope to place as many of them as possible into other roles in the company.”
Fans of the Need For Speed series shouldn’t worry. While some time has passed since Criterion did a Need For Speed game, they were pretty good at it. Criterion developed 2010’s Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, and 2012’s Need For Speed: Most Wanted. Most recent projects of the team included support for Star Wars Battlefront II and critically acclaimed Battlefield 5’s Firestorm mode. However, Criterion made its name by developing Burnout franchise.
We can only guess what the future holds. However, we can be sure that we’re getting at least one more new Need For Speed game in the future. Let’s just hope it’s a good one.
