There has been speculation that Need For Speed will end but, the developer Criterion Games said the NFS franchise will continue. But the firm, which is owned by Electronic Arts, has hinted that the next Need for Speed game is still a ways off.
For a long time Need For Speed franchise has consistently received annual installments. Over the following eleven years, four additional mainstream entries were launched, along with one mobile game (NFS: No Limits, released in 2015 by Firemonkeys Studios).
Will the Need for Speed Franchise End?
The latest NFS Unbound was released in 2022, and after that, no game was announced. The series still has a future, even though it seems to have lost some of its appeal in terms of release rate. In a recent statement to Eurogamer, developer Criterion Games affirmed that the franchise is still alive.
NFS Developer is busy with Battlefield
A representative for the firm told Eurogamer, “The Need for Speed team at Criterion is joining their colleagues working on Battlefield.” Need for Speed Unbound was postponed until 2022 since Criterion was already working on Battlefield 2042, having joined the project as a support studio in early 2021. Battlefield 1 (2016) and Battlefield 5 (2018) both benefited from its development. However, it seems that the next Battlefield game is its exclusive goal this time around. After the company stopped supporting Need for Speed Unbound in late 2024, it at least became its only emphasis.
When the Battlefield Labs community testing program was announced in early February 2025, the upcoming Battlefield game was referred to as a “pre-alpha.” According to this label, the shooter could not be available for purchase for at least a few more years. NFS fans might have to wait until the early 2030s for a new series entry because AAA game development cycles these days typically last five years, and Criterion has recently hinted that the next Need for Speed game won’t go into active production until the next Battlefield game is released.
Since Battlefield does not yet have a scheduled release date, the Need for Speed layoff may go much longer than it already does. If Need for Speed were to return in the future, it would be the longest gap between games since it was formerly an annualized franchise.
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