Need for Speed series had too many games too quickly, dev says
The upcoming reboot's producer said that the series needed a year off and a reboot to get back to its roots.
Between 2002 and 2013, at least one Need for Speed game came out every year. In 2011, publisher EA actually launched two NFS games, Shift 2: Unleashed and The Run. But the publisher and developer Ghost Games took last year off, and they now are working on a reboot of the series. In a new interview, executive producer Marcus Nilsson explained this move by stating that there were simply too many NFS games released too quickly.
Speaking to Official Xbox Magazine (via GamesRadar), Nilsson admitted that there were so many games released that it had become confusing for consumers. When asked about all the different Need for Speed games, Nilsson acknowledged that it had grown too convoluted. "Was it confusing to have Need for Speed: The Run [six months after having] Shift 2? Absolutely. Not only does it saturate Need for Speed, but it also confuses you. 'What is the experience I get from Need for Speed?'"
So, to fix this problem, EA and Ghost Games waited a year and essentially restarted the series. "Taking the year off is obviously an answer to that, right?" he said. "We used it to figure out who we are and what we should be... This reboot of the franchise is about getting our foundation correctly laid out -- what you see here is what the Need for Speed experience will be for the foreseeable future."
The Need for Speed reboot launches on November 3 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. You can read our impressions of the game here. Ghost Games and EA will also show footage at the Gamescom conference taking place this week. Check back on GameSpot during the conference for more news and videos of the game.