EA to kill off Need for Speed franchise?

PALGN Rumour | EA to send the once popular franchise to the junkyard.

If the rumours prove to be true, Need for Speed: Undercover will be the swansong for the long-running racing franchise, as it seems that the veritable cash cow is out of favour with the videogame publishing giant - thanks in part to the lukewarm reception of the latest offering, Undercover.

The rumour first surfaced via the videogame web show, Electric Playground, who reported that any future titles for the series have now been cancelled. They sought comment from Electronic Arts Director of Communications Colin Macrae, who provided a quote that did nothing to dispel the rumour, stating:

"We're working through a process on people, products, and facilities at EA and don't have any announcements today."

Has the Need for Speed series finally run out of gas? PALGN will keep tabs on this story as more news develops.

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25 Comments

Passa

4 years ago

PALGN wrote

it seems that the veritable cash cow is out of favour with the videogame publishing giant - thanks in part to the lukewarm reception of the latest offering, Undercover.

Lukewarm reception? It's because the latest iteration sucked, as did the last one. The fact that they're still selling half-decently is disturbing as it is.

And you know what - generally, I'm just sick of this yearly release bulls**t that publishers pull on us. It's going to come back to bite them too. You're not moving in the right direction when sequels are selling less than your predecessors; yeah whoring out your best IPs in the short term is awesome for stockholders, but in the long term you're shooting yourself in the foot.

All I can say is, watch out Activision-Blizzard.

pdaddy

4 years ago

The NFS franchise has been on a downward slope for a couple of years now.. I think Most Wanted was the last NFS game I actually enjoyed and had a decent amount of relatively new concepts and good execution of those concepts.. After that, the series just seemed to churn out carbon (no pun intended) copies from there with little to add to the genre..

And with Criterion under their helm now, just get them to make the next burnout game an 'nfs' game with their gameplay, but licensed cars..

I agree though, no yearly updates!!!

heatseeker

4 years ago

pdaddy wrote

I kind of agree. But I would say that Underground 2 was the best and most innovative one.

genxevo

4 years ago

I've bought every NFS game since they were on PC/PS1 except underground 1 & 2, carbon, prostreet and undercover. The franchise was never was the same after hot pursuit 2, it all became about riced up cars

The fast and the furious movie came out, and then everyone became a 'zOMG-look-at-my-supra-street-racer' and EA/NFS tried to cash in on that

i did enjoy most wanted though.. but Hot Pursuit 2 is always going to be my favourite

matrix-cat

4 years ago

The Need for Speed series is still great in my mind, because the last one I played was Hot Pursuit. As in Need for Speed 4, on the PSX.

It seems like they've just been releasing the same game over and over for a long while now, and somehow they get worse with every iteration. Everything needs to die some time.

ObsoletE

4 years ago

bring back supercars and you'll bring back a lot of supporters.

Mr Waffle

4 years ago

I'm one of the fans who was lost when they ditched the supercars in favour of the Fast 'n' Furious crowd. Project Gotham Racing nicely filled that void...

ObsoletE

4 years ago

heh, i forgot about PGR.

NFS certainly built up the market for several genres and niches, it's just a shame they didn't maintain the momentum for innovation other developers had.

lapzod

4 years ago

genxevo wrote

The fast and the furious movie came out, and then everyone became a 'zOMG-look-at-my-supra-street-racer' and EA/NFS tried to cash in on that

That's where I came into NFS. I enjoy the flashiness of the cars, and being able to do things in game that I would never be able to do in real life.

catlover30

4 years ago

I agree with genxevo, NFS lost me after Hot Pursuit 2 as well. NFS used to be all about arcade style racing on highways and mountains and stuff, it was fantastic. If they took NFS back to its roots and stopped with the city racing i bet they could reinvigorate the franchise.

RXWAG

4 years ago

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1DgUpt5fbs

takes me back!

Just redo the first one with some nice flashy graphics and Id be happy, maybe update the cars to the modern day versions...

Capoeira

4 years ago

This horse died a long time ago. Most Wanted was the last half-decent NFS game EA released. Everything since then has been a shameless cash-in.

If the series does get canned, I can't say I'm going to miss it.

JD-Ferel

4 years ago

Like most here' I haven't enjoyed this cookie cutter series since 'Most Wanted' (I still haven't tried Undercover or Pro Street) But I think the real point is that EA in this instance, have been pushing out the same stuff each year (IIRC a 16 month dev cycle per title) with no real new innovations. What EA should be doing is properly developing titles, making them better and more engrossing then worrying about their profit margin.
Way to go EA, congrats on killing what used to be a good franchise.

Sinthesys

4 years ago

lapzod wrote

genxevo wrote

The fast and the furious movie came out, and then everyone became a 'zOMG-look-at-my-supra-street-racer' and EA/NFS tried to cash in on that

That's where I came into NFS. I enjoy the flashiness of the cars, and being able to do things in game that I would never be able to do in real life.

Yeah, I really liked underground 1 & 2 for mainly that reason. Modding your car to all hell with rediculous flashiness was an addictive art where tact and class was left at the door.

As for everything afterwards? pretty mediocre stuff. I'm glad its being put to rest.

Slipvayne21

4 years ago

hooray, get rid of this franchise and use those resources to create something that is GOOD, and something that EA wont ask real money for, when you can use game money all the same.

Vervain

4 years ago

As much as I haven't liked the last few games I'm still going to be sad if Need for Speed does indeed get killed off. The games have just been such a huge part of my gaming life when I was younger and I'll be sad to know that there will no longer be anymore of them.

thawk

4 years ago

So NFS may be given the chop... not suprised
Need for speeds greatest moment was the brilliant original on the 3DO machine. (I still bring it out occasionly) If they went back to that type of game then i would buy it again.

waz79

4 years ago

It used to be about realism

ObsoletE

4 years ago

^ LOL?

the first couple of NFS games were pure arcade racers. true the first game had a heap of FMV's about the cars, and all the gadgets to record 0-60mph and so on, but the actual racing was far from being about the realism.

NaTe

4 years ago

Hot pursuit 3 was my favourite.

Last one I enjoyed was most wanted, I was hooked on that for weeks. Finished several times.

Yet to play undercover, but from what I hear I don't want to.

bleach1st

4 years ago

hmm the last one I ever played was Hot Pursuit 2 for PS2 but after that I played one cause it sort of got distracted from the racing and more on the whole bad boy big loud car crap that I couldn't care for... bascially EA killed Need for Speed after that game for me.

Not to mention too, the amount of good, quality racing games out there at the moment, in my opinion, is huge and NFS just seems weak and boring compared to the others...

Rabscallion

4 years ago

To be honest, I like undercover, Thing is its bassically just most wanted with a different skin.. No depth or anything. NFS2 : SE still the game for me.

Jellyfish

4 years ago

Mr Waffle wrote

I'm one of the fans who was lost when they ditched the supercars in favour of the Fast 'n' Furious crowd. Project Gotham Racing nicely filled that void...

Then they went and added... Motorbikes.

I have NFS:SE and that was such an awesome game. I think I may 3? somewhere as well but my computer couldn't run it at time (it game in a big game pack). I have Underground but gave up because of the ridiculous physics and AI. I assume that it went downhill from then on.