A new Need for Speed game will arrive by next year

By Gabe Gurwin February 1, 2017

Need for Speed Icons Trailer PC, PS4, Xbox One

After a reboot in 2015 and a complete no-show last year, Electronic Arts’ Need for Speed franchise is making its return, and the publisher believes that the extra wait will be worth it for longtime fans.

“We’ve given this game an extended development cycle to focus on innovation, and the Need for Speed team is pushing the boundaries of action driving with what we believe is the most exciting and best-looking Need for Speed game we’ve ever produced,” said Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson during an investor briefing Tuesday.

The announcement doesn’t make any mention of the studio responsible for developing the new Need for Speed game. For the last several years, the franchise has been handled by Ghost Games.

Prior to that, Burnout and Black developer Criterion Games was in charge, developing the excellent Need for Speed: Most Wanted and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. Following those games, the developer began development an extreme sports racing game, but it was canceled and Criterion is now primarily working on Star Wars projects.

The last two installments, however, didn’t quite live up to the franchise’s usually lofty standards. Need for Speed: Rivals launched alongside the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, but also released on last-generation consoles and failed to show off the power of the new systems. After a year off in 2014, the series was rebooted with Need for Speed in 2015. We called it a “mixed bag of tricks that the series has picked up over the years” and criticized the cheesy full-motion video sections that move forward the game’s cringe-worthy story.

With any luck, this new entry will return to the arcade-focused, fun-over-realism style that made the Need for Speed series so great, allowing other, more authentic simulations like Forza and Gran Turismo to offer a different take on the genre.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

Gaming

2 Age of Empires games are coming to Xbox next year, including a classic

Age of Empires IV

Microsoft has announced that two Age of Empires titles, Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition and Age of Empires IV, are coming to Xbox consoles in 2023. According to a blog post written by developer World's Edge on Tuesday, Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition will come out on January 31, 2023, and Age of Empires IV will be released later on in the year.

Age of Empires is Coming to Xbox Consoles

Gaming

The next Sims game is officially in development and fans will help shape it

A crowd of Sims attends an in-game musical festival.

More than 8 years after the initial launch of The Sims 4, EA and Maxis revealed what's next for the popular life simulation series. Code-named Project Rene, this game is in early development, and EA plans on looping players in on the state of the game throughout development as they have with skate. (as it styles itself) and Dead Space.
EA teased the new game during the Behind The Sims Summit livestream, which reflected on the series' history, and also teased upcoming DLC content for The Sims 4, The Sims FreePlay, and The Sims Mobile. Still, the final announcement of Project Rene was the highlight of the show, and we even got an early look at gameplay. Not only is there a clear visual improvement over The Sims 4, but Project Rene also includes new features like being able to change the shape of objects you are placing in the game and create with friends in the same space no matter what platform you are both playing on.

We didn't actually see any Sims in this footage, but those who enjoy the interior designing that the game enables will appreciate the early look. Still, VP of Franchise Creative for The Sims Lyndsay Pearson hinted at the overall vision of Project Rene when introducing the game.
"This is the future of The Sims, built on a foundation of charming Sims, powerful tools, and meaningful stories," Pearson teased. "This future requires us to stay true to what The Sims has always been while pushing to evolve how those Sims think and behave, to push tools even further when creating and customizing, and to explore innovative ways to not only tell stories but to collaborate on those stories or creations with your closest friends across your favorite devices."
EA did not detail all of the specific platforms Project Rene will come to, but we did see the game running on PC and mobile during the showcase. The game is "years away," so a specific release date or window was not shared, but we'll learn it in due course as EA continues the open development process with this game.

Gaming

Need a new multiplayer game? Try this 24-player mech shooter

galahad 3093 early access hero

Aside from the recent PC release of Mech Warrior 5 in 2021, there’s been a distinct shortage of games about giant robots duking it out in space. Don’t get me wrong: Titanfall and its sequel were delightful in how they spliced tight first-person shooting with pilotable mechs that one could summon from the sky. Meanwhile, multiplayer-focused mech games like Vox Machinae and Hawken have come and gone, existing in their own corners of the industry. The former was predominantly designed around virtual reality, and the latter was a free-to-play albeit defunct shooter that’s been out of the picture since early 2018. In light of that, there’s plenty of space for a new game to come along and reinvigorate the giant robot niche.

That’s what upcoming arena shooter Galahad 3093 seeks to do. It mixes elements of Mech Warrior, Hawken, Overwatch, and Starsiege: Tribes into one experience. That mix should be, at the very least, intriguing to those who’ve been waiting for their next mech shooter fix.