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Four Need for Speed Games In Development (Update)
by Maarten Goldstein, Jan 30, 2009 6:26am PST
Update: In addition to the three Need for Speed games below, Electronic Arts tells Eurogamer that "Black Box is currently working on a future action title in the franchise." No additional details on the so-called "secret NFS game" are known at this time.
Original Story: GameSpot is reporting that despite recent mass layoffs at Need for Speed series developer EA Black Box, Electronic Arts is not giving up on the Need for Speed franchise.
On the contrary, as the publisher has three new entries in the series in the works.
The PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PSP are set to receive Need for Speed Shift, described as a "hardcore racing simulation". Development is being handled by UK start-up Slightly Mad Studios, with production overseen by Black Box executive producer Michael Mann and DICE co-founder Patrick Soderlund.
Slightly Mad Studios was founded by veterans of SimBin and Blimey!, and is said to include "the core development team" responsible for the GTR racing sim series.
An arcade racer titled Need for Speed Nitro is in development for Wii and Nintendo DS at EA Montreal. The game is said to feature a more Nintendo-style "mischievous" look.
Need for Speed Shift and Nitro will both arrive this fall.
Lastly, Black Box and EA Shanghai are working on Need for Speed World Online. Developed exclusively for the PC, the free-to-play racing MMO will launch this summer in Asia, before coming to North America in the winter.
Comments
It looks an awful lot like GRID. --> http://ajax.shackspace.com/Pictures/screenshot.png
While it will be cool if EA manages to pull off the "hardcore racing simulation" thing with the core GTR crew working on the game (see http://store.steampowered.com/app/8720/ to get kicked in the teeth by the difficulty curve on the GTR demo), it will likely be a wasted effort. The fanbase didn't play the Need for Speed games for their hardcore racing simulation experience. They played Most Wanted and Hot Pursuit and High Stakes for the adrenaline-pumping, balls-to-the-wall, drive-your-ass-off arcade madness and fun of it all. And I'm pretty sure they've said as much a time or two or three or ten.
Wouldn't past sales be indicative of the titles' success? I mean I'm no marketing genius or anything but if I were working on these games, I'd want to go back and look at what was successful in the past and try to emulate and build off of that rather than just doing whatever the hell I wanted every year and then wonder why the sales keep slipping.
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