‘Need for Speed’ Full Reboot Arriving in November
Electronic Arts has announced plans to release a new Need for Speed game. According to reports, it will be a complete reboot aimed at reviving the franchise. Facing new competition in the racing genre, and coming off the first year in the series’ history that a new title wasn’t released, developer Ghost Games is looking to go back to the basics and exploit what made the game such a hit two decades ago.
“The theory, or the strategy, for us was to become the owners of [NFS],” Ghost Games exec Marcus Nilsson told GameSpot. “So what we’ve been doing in this year off is we’ve been trying to understand what people think Need for Speed should be standing for. What people get from this year that we didn’t ship a game, is they get a game that delivers on all the core tenets of what Need for Speed should be. And they get that in a very high quality form.”
A retail posting for the upcoming game popped up on the official Xbox Store website earlier this week. According to the post, NFS will be set on the West Coast and feature a “nocturnal open world of urban car culture.” There will be five different ways to play the game: Speed, Style, Build, Crew and Outlaw. Players will be able to “earn reputation” and choose the way they succeed.
A hint of an overarching storyline will keep gamers engaged throughout the game. Nilsson dropped a clue in the GameSpot interview, but didn’t reveal more. He said, “We are taking a very innovative approach to how we tell a story. That’s actually probably as much as I can say at this time. If you just go back three years with Need for Speed: The Run, there were stories in [that game]. Absolutely not the best executed stories. But we had stories. And I think a missing piece from the last games we had has been narrative. I think we can deliver a better game to our fans if we connect to them emotionally through story.”
The Xbox Store posting, which has since been deleted, pointed to the rebooted game arriving Nov. 3. EA has not yet confirmed that date, but it is expected to arrive in the fall.
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‘Need for Speed’ Full Reboot Arriving in November
Electronic Arts has announced plans to release a new Need for Speed game. According to reports, it will be a complete reboot aimed at reviving the franchise. Facing new competition in the racing genre, and coming off the first year in the series’ history that a new title wasn’t released, developer Ghost Games is looking to go back to the basics and exploit what made the game such a hit two decades ago.
“The theory, or the strategy, for us was to become the owners of [NFS],” Ghost Games exec Marcus Nilsson told GameSpot. “So what we’ve been doing in this year off is we’ve been trying to understand what people think Need for Speed should be standing for. What people get from this year that we didn’t ship a game, is they get a game that delivers on all the core tenets of what Need for Speed should be. And they get that in a very high quality form.”
A retail posting for the upcoming game popped up on the official Xbox Store website earlier this week. According to the post, NFS will be set on the West Coast and feature a “nocturnal open world of urban car culture.” There will be five different ways to play the game: Speed, Style, Build, Crew and Outlaw. Players will be able to “earn reputation” and choose the way they succeed.
A hint of an overarching storyline will keep gamers engaged throughout the game. Nilsson dropped a clue in the GameSpot interview, but didn’t reveal more. He said, “We are taking a very innovative approach to how we tell a story. That’s actually probably as much as I can say at this time. If you just go back three years with Need for Speed: The Run, there were stories in [that game]. Absolutely not the best executed stories. But we had stories. And I think a missing piece from the last games we had has been narrative. I think we can deliver a better game to our fans if we connect to them emotionally through story.”
The Xbox Store posting, which has since been deleted, pointed to the rebooted game arriving Nov. 3. EA has not yet confirmed that date, but it is expected to arrive in the fall.