Electronic Arts is putting everything on the line with the new Battlefield, but in return, they are giving up the next Need For Speed‘s development.
The next Need For Speed game was already mentioned last year (it was meant to launch this year), during an EA Play Live 2020 video, which also featured EA Motive’s (allegedly) cancelled project called Gaia. Now, we saw an interview on Polygon, where Laura Miele, Electronic Arts’ chief studios officer, said the following:
„There’s no way we would have made a decision like this without including [Criterion] and discussing this with them first, and the impact that they could have on [Battlefield]. They’ve worked on [Star Wars] Battlefront, they’ve worked on Battlefields, and they have a tight, close collaborative partnership with DICE. I’m confident that this is going to be a pretty positive win for them,” Miele said. However, Criterion is now demoted to a support role again…
She added that Need For Speed is not taken away from Criterion, but we’ll see. We wouldn’t rule out if the IP was offered to the freshly acquired Codemasters, and if that happened, we’d go a full circle. Previously, the two Need For Shift games were developed by Slightly Mad Studios which Codemasters acquired! But back to Criterion, „They’ve been on it for over a year, and they’re doing some exceptional things in live service,” Miele added. So despite the success of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, despite the axing of Anthem and Anthem Next, and despite Dragon Age 4 redesigned to be a single-player-only title, Electronic Arts still wants to focus on live service…
Justin Wiebe, the senior design director at DICE LA, has revealed on Twitter that the studio is also involved with Battlefield 6‘s development, meaning the studio, which was previously announced to be rebranded under the helm of Vince Zampella (Respawn’s founder) to work on an original title, is now pushing Battlefield’s development instead. Wiebe added, „it’s wondrous I get to work on a game I fell in love with almost 20 years ago! The sandbox play of 1942 was just amazing for its time. I look forward to hearing from all of you what you loved and hope for in a future Battlefield game.”
Battlefield 6 will launch this Holiday season on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PC (Steam, Origin), PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
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