The Need For Speed series is now exclusively being developed by Ghost Games. Criterion will no longer be working on future installments of the franchise.
Head of Ghost Games Marcus Nilsson spoke to VideoGamer, and explained the situation with Need For Speed:
“It cannot go from black to white between Black Box and Criterion, and that’s why we’re now thinking about the brand as Ghost owns it,” he said.
“We’re going to build it, we’re going to build it on Frostbite 3, [and] people will see something they are familiar with every time we release the game. And I think that is the core basis of building a brand; that people know what to expect.”
“When you go from a Shift experience to The Run experience to a Hot Pursuit experience, then it loses credibility. I think we now have the work of re-establishing that credibility with building the brand. You know, it’s still a really strong brand, absolutely. We just need to make sure people know what to expect when they get it, and Rivals is absolutely the first step toward that,” he said.
“Need For Speed is not going to go away, right? It’s not the final or last step of that. But what you see in Rivals, a lot of those things will carry on going forward and myself and Rivals will be involved in shaping that.”
It makes sense for only one developer to develop games in a franchise because it ensures that the quality remains consistent. If two developers are making games it can lead to huge differences between games and that can cause confusion and anger in gamers. With Criterion free from this series, I look forward to hearing about their next project. Rumor has it that it will not be a racing game at all.
Need For Speed Rivals releases this November for PC, PS3, 360. The game will also be coming to PS4 and Xbox One.
Do you think it is a good decision for only one developer to take on a franchise? What do you hope Criterion make next? Let me know in the comments below.
