The Need for Speed franchise is a massive one that spans several years and countless video game titles. Currently, the latest installment for the franchise is Need for Speed Unbound, a game developed under Criterion Games and released into the marketplace back in December of last year. But if you felt that the game franchise was going to be shelved from Criterion Games, you’d be wrong. A new job posting reveals that the development studio is bringing out another installment into the marketplace, although details have yet to be unveiled.
All that we have learned so far is that a new job posting for a World Artist at Criterion Games has popped up. With it comes a job description revealing that the development team is challenging the conventions of the racing genre to take the Need for Speed franchise to the next level. Just what that is remains a mystery, but a new open world is being crafted for the studio. Unfortunately, that’s just about all we know right now, and it could be kept a mystery for a good little while as the development team continues to work through the game project.
As mentioned, Criterion Games is just coming off their last release, Need for Speed Unbound. That installment was released last year and took inspiration from graffiti and cel-shading rather than a more realistic approach to the franchise. Fans and critics generally favored it, but we don’t know if this is the same style the development team will be carrying over onto the next game. But that installment was released for the PlayStation 5, PC, and Xbox Series X/S, so last-generation platforms were already dropped from this franchise with the launch of this game.
We imagine the same will be said for the next installment Criterion Games is working on. Meanwhile, we’re going to practice some patience here as we wait for the game to get its official reveal. Perhaps we’ll see a brand new take on the franchise to breathe some new life into this IP. At any rate, until Criterion Games and EA are ready to unveil the game, we’ll be left in the dark for a bit longer. In the meantime, you can check out a Before You Buy video coverage of Need for Speed Unbound in the video we have embedded below.