Close to three years on from Need for Speed Unbound’s release, as fans of the racing series continue to ask questions about its future, EA has assured that it will have a future- just not quite yet.
As recently as 2023, it looked like Criterion was ramping up development on the next Need for Speed, but later that very year, it was announced that the studio had been drafted to work on Battlefield instead (again).
Now, speaking with Eurogamer, EA exec Vince Zampella – who’s currently overseeing the entire Battlefield franchise – has said that Criterion is currently busy with Battlefield. That said, the studio will eventually return to Need for Speed, which, Zampella says, it intends to bring back in “new and interesting ways.”
“The Need for Speed team at Criterion are joining their colleagues working on Battlefield,” he said. “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.”
As Zampella mentioned, in 2024, Need for Speed Unbound received an additional year of post-launch content that added new vehicles, events, modes, customization options, and more.
As for Battlefield, EA has announced Battlefield Labs, a testing initiative through which it says it hopes to make the community more involved in providing critical feedback for the in-development project. Read more on that through here.
