EAEA has confirmed that a new Need For Speed game will release before the end of 2019, although it doesn’t look like we should expect to see anything of the title until a little while after E3 wraps up in June.
The news comes via Ben Walke of the EA DICE team, who revealed in a lengthy blog post that a new, as yet untitled entry will be releasing “later in 2019.” The last entry in the popular racing franchise was 2017’s Need For Speed Payback.
EAWalke teased that “tradition” will play a role in the upcoming game, but noted that the Need For Speed team aren’t in the business of simply looking back and reminiscing about the old days, which… probably isn’t the best news for anyone hoping for an Underground 2 remaster.
He wrote:
While we’ve had some great memories over those twenty-five years, we’re not here to look back and reminisce. We’ve got our eyes set firmly on the future. But even while focusing on the future – especially this year – we’ve also thought a lot about what NFS means to you, and perhaps more importantly what we hope it will mean as we move forward.
It was also noted that “cars and customisation” very much top the list of what fans expect from Need For Speed. To that end, Walke confirmed that these two “foundational” features wouldn’t be going anywhere, which frankly is about as surprising as EA confirming that the next FIFA game will still have footballers.
With that said, the post does go on to hint that we could be seeing a big change for the franchise, as Walke writes that “traditions are all well and good, but they can also be broken, and new ones forged. Just because we’ve done something one way for the last few years, doesn’t mean we should continue to do so.”
EASadly, it was made clear that we absolutely won’t be seeing anything of the new game in June, as the team continue to work to have something ready to show. With that in mind, don’t expect anything NFS related from E3 2019.
Walke explained:
Are you going to hear more about the next NFS title? Yes. Is it being released this year? Yes. Will we be doing anything in June? No. It’s as simple as that, but we wanted to give you a heads up before you started asking “where are you?” Our goal is to deliver a truly memorable high-speed entry into the 25 years of NFS, rather than a series of promotional events. The game matters most – a sentiment we bet you share with us.
EAWhile I’m all for the idea of a brand new Need For Speed game, it is worth pointing that the majority of comments underneath Walke’s post explicitly ask for a remaster of Underground 2. Clearly, that’s not a project anyone’s letting go of anytime soon.
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Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.