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EA redoing racing game to fit 3 specific platforms
Electronic Arts photo
The new Need for Speed games have been in development for two years.
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Published: February 5, 2009
Electronic Arts is steering the popular Need for Speed franchise in a new direction.
EA announced plans last week to spin off the 15-year-old racing series into three driving games on different platforms. The new games will speed into three separate genres -- simulation, action and arcade racing.
"It's all about crafting different games for different audiences," said Keith Munro, EA marketing vice president. "The Need for Speed brand is quite powerful. It has great recognition, even outside of gaming. When we talked to consumers about what the brand meant to them, we realized that it could be stretched to new limits on different platforms."
The new games, expected to be released later this year, are Need for Speed Shift, a first-person racing simulation for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360; Need for Speed World Online, a multiplayer action-driving game for the PC; and Need for Speed Nitro, an arcade-style racing game developed by EA Montreal for the Nintendo Wii and DS.
"In the past, our Need for Speed games have done very well on all platforms," Munro said. "We just think we can do better with this new plan. We actually have the opportunity to devote an entirely new studio and development team to the creation of a from-the-ground-up Nintendo-only Need for Speed game. We didn't have those resources available before."
Munro said that EA Black Box, the Canadian developer that created every previous Need for Speed game, has been collaborating with developer Slightly Mad Studios on Need for Speed Shift and EA Singapore on Need for Speed World Online. He also said that Black Box is continuing to work on a new action driving game, despite recent companywide layoffs.
"They will still be very much involved in the development of Need for Speed products," Munro said. "Over the years, we've asked the Black Box team to deliver a new Need for Speed game every year. We've gone to a couple of new studios to deliver next fall's games to inject freshness into the category and give the Black Box team time to retrench."
The new games have been in development for two years. The original Need for Speed was released in 1994 for the 3DO, PC, PlayStation and Sega Saturn systems. The most recent game, Need for Speed Undercover, was released last November for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, Wii and PC.
When it comes to massively multiplayer online games for adults, there's World of Warcraft and then ... everybody else. But MMOs for kids are much more competitive, with all the usual suspects (like Disney and Nickelodeon) looking to draw the young-uns into their virtual spaces.
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The first big expansion for the PC game comes this spring with Spore Galactic Adventures, which builds on the space-faring final segment of the original. For kids, EA will have Spore Creature Keeper, which turns even the most hideous mutants into virtual pets.
There's also Spore Hero, a standalone adventure for the Wii, and Spore Hero Arena, a Pokemon -like collecting game for the DS. Like it or not, these things will take over the universe.
The nominees for the 12th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards have been announced. Game of the year nominees are Fallout 3, Fable II, Grand Theft Auto IV, LittleBigPlanet and Left4Dead. The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences will announce the winners Feb. 19 at the DICE (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit in Las Vegas.
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