UPDATE
What would YOU want in a new entry in the racing franchise? Do you have specific features or ideas you’d like incorporated? Let us know below!
ORIGINAL STORY
You might think that racing games are one of the easiest gaming franchises to make and sell. After all, the “whole point” is the racing element and having it happen in an enjoyable way. However, that’s not really the case. Thanks to how “easy they are to make,” if you don’t make them stand out from the crowd, it’s not going to do well. For Criterion Games, they’ve been doing the Need For Speed franchise for decades, almost thirty years at this point. They started the franchise to be a “realistic racing simulator,” but that focus shifted over the years.
As other racing franchises came out, and those same franchises took realism and other elements to heights far beyond what Criterion could do, they decided to focus on different elements of story, gameplay, and what the players could do with their rides. On the one hand, that kind of creativity can be beneficial, and some of their games with this new focus did sell well. However, their latest title, Need For Speed: Unbound, not only didn’t do well, it kind of angered the community via what it didn’t let them do and how different it felt from past titles.
Over on Reddit, a speedrunner for the franchise noted that Criterion Games met with many content creators to discuss what would be needed to bring the franchise back to its former glory. While he couldn’t reveal anything specific due to NDAs, he did highlight some of the overarching talks that were put out.
For example, he noted that they were asked about which games were best to highlight the “direction” of the series going forward, and the content creators pointed to the titles that Blackbox Games worked on. Furthermore, they needed to focus more on multiplayer elements, including having leaderboards. Some gameplay issues were discussed, including how gamers handled the cars within the title and how customization should happen going forward.
As if that wasn’t enough, they talked about every game in the series and broke down their elements to see what “inspiration” could be had for the next title.
The leaker noted that Criterion allowed the content creators to be “brutally honest” and that there was plenty of talk about what they didn’t like about past games and how things need to be adjusted for the future. In the end, the meeting was “positive,” and everyone apparently felt “optimistic” about the series’ future.
Only time will tell if the next entry matches fans’ and content creators’ expectations.
