Will it or will it not? The next Need for Speed game has been stuck in second gear for a while now, but perhaps 2022 may finally see the game back up to speed, with news that it will be out this November and on current-gen consoles only.
Some background. The new Need for Speed game got off to a racing start, with news that Criterion Games will be taking the wheel back in 2020. Criterion Games were the developers behind 2010’s Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and 2012’s Need for Speed: Most Wanted, arguably the more successful games in the franchise. Then EA decided to put the brakes on it, pulling Criterion away to help put out the fire that is Battlefield 2042.
The game then went on to miss its 2021 launch date (no surprise), which was then supposed to launch in March 2022 (which didn’t happen). EA’s Chief Studios Officer Laura Miele also previously stated that the game will be released on both previous-gen (PlayStation 4 and Xbox One) and current-gen consoles. Now it seemed that EA has reversed course and decided it will only be available on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S (and very likely the PC as well).
With so much flip flopping going on, we can only hope that the new Need for Speed game (someone give it a name already!) is not stuck in limbo, or even worse, launch with bugs and performance issues. At least, with previous-gen consoles out of the way, it won’t repeat the Cyberpunk fiasco. Only November will tell.
Jimmy is on a never-ending quest to finish his ever-expanding library of games, but he keeps getting sidetracked by a mountain of books to read, and a trail of actual mountains he hopes to climb.
Jake Su
