Black Box behind Nov 2011 Need for Speed

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 2 November, 2010

EA does a COD with alternating dev strategy.

EA's vision for the Need for Speed franchise involves alternating the developers behind every November release in a similar way Infinity Ward and Treyarch alternate development of Call of Duty games.

This November's game, Hot Pursuit, was created by Criterion. November 2011's game, unannounced at this stage but confirmed to be in EA's plan, will be created by Need for Speed: Undercover developer EA Black Box in Canada.

EA also plans to make a franchise out of side series Need for Speed: Shift – designed to compete with the likes of Forza and Gran Turismo in the authentic simulation racing genre.

EA's new NFS strategy was revealed by executive Patrick Soderlund in a wide ranging new interview with Eurogamer.

"We want to reach a mass-market audience, and Hot Pursuit is a more mass-market appealing product than Shift," Soderlund said.

"We want to come back with an action adventure type of product on an annual basis, but from a developer that's been working on it for a couple of years.

"Maybe there are two or three developers going at it every second year. Then, when the market permits and when we feel ready, we'll come up with Shift versions as well."

Soderlund's new vision for the franchise was born out of a frustration at the quality of previous games in the series.

Developers were only given eight to 10 months to create a NFS game. Under the new strategy multiple developers will each get two years development time, allowing EA to stick to its traditional annual release schedule without reducing quality.

While November NFS games will differ on account of the studios behind them, Soderlund promised gamers they will all share core NFS tenets, and even game features.

"We want Auto Log to be something that follows with the consumer to the next NFS product," he explained. "We want them to use their log in and their details they had from the previous game into the next. If they're a loyal consumer to us we would reward them for that."

Despite the plan, Soderlund refused to confirm that Guildford developer Criterion is now a NFS exclusive studio. "What happens to Criterion in the future, we'll see," he offered. Soderlund also confirmed that the Burnout series, loved by so many of Criterion's fans, is not dead.

"I hope to see more Burnout games in the future. But it's about prioritising what we want to do. At this point we haven't made a decision to whether Burnout does this or that, but it's not dead for sure, no."

And on Shift, which debuted last year with Slightly Mad's effort, Soderlund outlined ambitious plans for EA to overtake Sony's Gran Turismo series and Microsoft's Forza franchise as gaming's leading simulation racer.

"We think we can compete and ultimately become market leading in the simulation authentic motorsport segment," he said.

"One of the strongest points we have is, apart from the fact we have a very talented developer working with us and we now have an established brand underneath the NFS umbrella in that segment, we also have the advantage of being a multi-platform offering.

"Forza can only be bought on Xbox and Gran Turismo is only available on PlayStation. We're the only one right now that is of a significant weight that can offer something up on all those platforms."

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (24) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • NimbusTLD #1 2 years ago

    "a loyal consumer"? Come on, surely we'd be loyal players man...

  • DoctorFouad #2 2 years ago

    in short : we will eat need for speed games in the next 5 years...
    or : how a publisher could kill a franchise...MEHH...
    I have a feeling independant developers this generation are a myth, they are more professional independant workers waiting to get a job for a limited time...do me a new devil may cry, I want you to create a Need for speed game like the predecessor one on ps1, and you I want you to work on a tomb raider game, you a dead rising game..;etc etc etc

    When those so called independant developers could sign a real contract with their own new innovative IP ? today it is more like having summer jobs...
    Edited by DoctorFouad at 02/11/10 @ 13:18

  • EMULOUS #3 2 years ago

    Compete with Gran Turismo? Good luck with that.
    Edited by EMULOUS at 02/11/10 @ 13:07

  • RodHull #4 2 years ago

    So we only get a decent NFS on even numbered years, yes?

  • midnight_walker #5 2 years ago

    Weren't EA only recently talking about having NFS once every other year because they had accepted that they were just churning out cookie-cutter games that were cheapening the series?

    So much for the new EA...

  • StolenGlory #6 2 years ago

    "Compete with Gran Turismo? Good luck with that."

    Oh that'll be easy; NFS appeals to people with a pulse.

  • muscleblade #7 2 years ago

    Its definently the same strategy. Let a fantastic developer(Criterion, Infinity Ward) make it one year so that people get fooled to buy it the year after when its made by a not so good developer (Black Box, Treyarch)

  • Darren #8 2 years ago

    Black Box, IMO, are a bit of a so-so developer as they've churned out some of the more mediocre Need for Speed games in recent memory. SHIFT was good (if a NfS game in name only) but it wasn't developed entirely by them I believe; my guess is that the replays were the other developer's idea since none of their previous NfS games had that feature!

    I'm encouraged that the series is in the hands of Criterion. Although I didn't especially enjoy Burnout Paradise, I did love their earlier games and the NfS Hot Pursuit demo reminded me a lot of those. The day time coastal race even looked like the one from the earlier Hot Pursuit 2 game on the Xbox although thankfully it looked and played a hell of a lot better.

  • frunk #9 2 years ago

    Am I the only one that thinks the annual NFS outings are a bewildering array of average.

    By all means get Criterion to make it better... but we don't need a game like this EVERY year... every 2 years is fine, then I won't get the weird cross-talk thing happening when you try to work out which is the good one. With one per year you get one launched and the hype for the next one has already begun.

    ENOUGH!

  • frunk #10 2 years ago

    And before anyone says COD does it... well each COD is set in a very different time period.. easy to differentiate the two. But a fast car is a fast car...

    Or just get away from calling them NFS... start a new IP to differentiate the different styles... stop it with the meaningless sub-title.

    I am dumb - take pity on me!

  • PlugMonkey #11 2 years ago

    "Black Box, IMO, are a bit of a so-so developer as they've churned out some of the more mediocre Need for Speed games in recent memory. "

    They were also only given eight or ten months to make them.

  • mikew1985 #12 2 years ago

    They also make the SKATe series, which is fantastic, and obviously the passion of the studio (especially the first one, which was incredibly innovative, and just one of the best games this gen).

  • orangpelupa #13 2 years ago

    yeah, the SHIFT can success on PC. There literally no competition on PC. Only Shift.

    EDIT:
    i mean for the forza + GT in the interview.
    there no forza + GT on PC.
    so only Shift, alone.
    Edited by orangpelupa at 02/11/10 @ 15:48

  • Shakey_Jake33 #14 2 years ago

    EA need to be careful they don't make the same mistake Activision have done (and are in danger of doing with Call of Duty) and kill enthusiasm for a series by releasing too many titles in quick succession. Then again, given EA's past (and indeed, the history of Need for Speed), they surely know this.

    Activision have created a situation where they do not have other IP to fall back on. EA have made effort to expand their portfolio with a wide range of IP, they would be wise not to abuse this.

  • dingo75 #15 2 years ago

    So we only get a decent NFS on even numbered years, yes?

    Yeah reminds me of Windows NT patches back then (the even ones were the ones to apply, the odd ones were the ones to avoid at all costs).

  • davisorle #16 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 20:44:35 16-04-2012

  • Froggit #17 2 years ago

    @EMULOUS
    "Compete with Gran Turismo? Good luck with that."

    Its not gonna be that hard if they release NFS every other year. Only hard part might be the year that grand Turismo actually gets released. The other 47 years they should have it :p"

    Fixed that for you.

  • SavageEvil #18 2 years ago

    Hold on, EA was doing this alternating dev with NFS for a while now, what is with EG? You guys slowly going senile? NFS is no Gran Turismo, it's NFS leave it where it's supposed to be, stick to being unrealistic fun. There is a market for wild and ridiculous antics and NFS fills that void, well used to Most Wanted was the last bastion of goodness in the NFS series. It had car customization, cop chases and wicked ride to tool around in. This new Hot Pursuit is going backwards, no customization to speak of so far, and just a bunch of exotic cars...BORING! This is why Underground was so popular, it gave you a gamut of everyday rides that some of us actually owned, Most Wanted took it and included dream machines too. If NFS settles on having 80-100 cars and you can mod them and they are not all super cars then you will have a nice place to fit in.

  • Kill_Crazy #19 2 years ago

    I can't believe i'm saying this but Codemasters are up their with F12010 and definately in front of Shift.

  • SpaceViking #20 2 years ago

    @SavageEvil Fuck customization, that got boring right after Underground 2
    This is the first NFS game in years that looks interesting.

  • FooAtari #21 2 years ago

    @orangelupa
    "yeah, the SHIFT can success on PC. There literally no competition on PC. Only Shift."

    What about the GTR Series, Race Series, iRacing and RFactor series (once RFactor is released)??

    Plenty competition and all much more authentic and realistic than Shift.

  • layleeloo #22 2 years ago

    Let's hoe they can put a half decent control scheme in then as the EANFS team have been incapable the last 10 years!!!

  • layleeloo #23 2 years ago

    Let's hope they can put a half decent control scheme in then as the EANFS team have been incapable the last 10 years!!!

  • Zomeguy #24 2 years ago

    I want a new racing game that does the crash mode of Burnout.