While things have been quiet about the Need for Speed series since the release of Need for Speed Unbound, it was believed that we would see another entry in the storied franchise at some point down the line. A new report, however, indicates that EA might have decided to permanently shelf the Need for Speed franchise. The report comes courtesy of a statement by EA-funded car website Speedhunters.
In an Instagram post, Speedhunters contributor Matthew Everingham revealed that the website itself is also being shelved due to funding from EA coming to an end. For context, Speedhunters has been described as “an international collective of photographers, writers and drivers with a shared passion for uncovering the world’s most exciting car culture stories.” A quick glance at the website would indeed confirm that not much has been going on there for a bit, with the latest post having been published back in April.
“Speedhunters is on ice,” posted Everingham on Instagram. “EA shelved Need For Speed, and that means no more funding for the site. Grateful for everything — the trips, the stories, the lifelong mates. I’m still shooting, just shifting gears into more video.”
The idea that Need for Speed might have been permanently shelved by EA runs counter to the statement that the company had made regarding developer Criterion earlier this year. In its statement, EA had said that Criterion was currently busy with working on the next Battlefield game. The studio, however, would eventually return to working on Need for Speed with new content for Unbound.
“The Need for Speed team at Criterion are joining their colleagues working on Battlefield,” said EA exec Vince Zampella. “As a company, it was important to us to take the last year to listen to our Need for Speed community and use their feedback to create content for Unbound. With an increased understanding of what our players want in a Need for Speed experience, we plan to bring the franchise back in new and interesting ways.”
The last time Criterion had spoken about Need for Speed was last year, when it had confirmed that support for NFS Unbound would continue to get more updates and content. As part of celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Need for Speed franchise, the studio had announced additional content, and updates to its PvP playlists and updates for Freedrive. However, this announcement was made more than a year ago at this point.
Back in 2023, there were also rumours going around about a potential remake of one of the most beloved games in the franchise – 2005’s Need for Speed: Most Wanted. The rumour came about thanks to cryptic teases about the original Most Wanted by actor Simone Bailly, who played the role of the unnamed partner of Sergeant Jonathon Cross in the game’s main story.
In the meantime, Criterion, along with DICE and Ripple Effect, has been working on the next Battlefield game, and has been helping with development on the Battlefield Labs playtests. The Battlefield game is currently slated for release later this year, and is coming to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
