What's Need For Speed franchise's future going to be?

Hello

I would like to share my thoughts on the Need For Speed franchise's future, for the upcoming 2021 installment for console/PC, I hope they won't have microtransactions in order to pay to win in frustrating events or something.

I'm neutral that will I get into Need For Speed 2021? otherwise, I would look forward to Forza Horizon 5 and Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown instead.

I don't know why you would assume there's going to be a Need for Speed game in 2021. They have generally been on a two year cycle, but with the pandemic and shift to new consoles I could easily see them missing a year.

If they do the release a game in the series this year I think it's going to be like all the other recent games in the series. An arcade racer full of microtransactions that gets fairly mediocre review scores and doesn't make much of a splash.

They had a chance to reinvent the series with the 2015 reboot and they didn't. Now they're releasing a bunch of games with half baked ideas (like Heat) and mediocre story stuff, and some remasters of the classics (I would like to see a remaster of 2012 Most Wanted, which was actually a good game, and had great multiplayer stuff.)

They need to get back to what made the games good in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Slick presentation, fun, responsive, gameplay, refined multiplayer, and arcadey controls (not full on Mario Kart, but light, responsive, cars that drift well.)

Instead they're searching for some new gimmick or story, and loading the games with microtransactions that make them grindy and unpleasant (it's never fun to be heavily advertised to during a game.) I don't see that changing, but maybe they'll surprise me. Hopefully the acquisition of Codemasters will allow them to learn something from how Codemasters games are structured (not as many microtransactions, more interesting events etc...) but I fear it will be the opposite way around and Codemasters games will just be infested with microtransactions and advertisements (not that they don't have some already.)

@bigsocrates: In last year, next Need For Speed gets teased confirms that is going to release in 2021.

EA Confirms New Need for Speed Game Will Launch In 2021, Promises "Astounding Visual Leaps" on Next Gen Consoles — The Nobeds

@gtxforza:

And it's delayed to 2022.

Color me unsurprised.

I think they need to do another "back to basics" type of game. Take a break from open world, just make some stand alone tracks with very deliberate layouts designed for fun racing. Don't put too much resources into an elaborate story. Just, you're new in town and want to race the best. Maybe a new Hot Pursuit or Underground.

Once they have mechanics refined and a game that is well received, then use that foundation to build a big open world with all that Fast and Furious attitude crap.

More realistic cities and adding extra tricks to escape the cops might help the game appeal.

I didn't hate the last few, but I kinda wish they'd stop trying to make it a big AAA thing, and scale it down a bit, lowering both the scope and the price point. I'd kinda rather have a track based racing game than another open world one, and those early track based NFS games are my favorites.

Go more for a Ridge Racer vibe than whatever the half-hearted Forza Horizon thing they've been doing, and double down on dumb FMV.

@judaspete: They should bring back the old driving model which was previously used in Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2 (2002) to Need For Speed World (2010).

@bigsocrates: I hope they would able to heavily improve the coming up installment.

@fisk0: I want the Ridge Racer series to be back!

@fisk0: I'm gonna say the unpopular thing:

They poisoned the well with NFS 2015. I don't think dumb FMV plays anymore, either in an ironic or deliberately unironic sense (ala Most Wanted).

I think the most fertile ground for them is to make a new Underground game and appeal directly to everybody's burgeoning early oughties nostalgia.

I truly despise the FMV cut scenes and the whole edgy narrative tone, the driving model also feels incredibly dated.

There's a blog at the EA site about what Criterion is up to. EA's gonna give the studio time to make the next Need For Speed. Won't be here anytime soon.

@fisk0: I fear EA will never cut prices (the best you'll get is rather rapid move from the EA Play Premium to Basic/included with Game Pass tier after it craters at retail again) but the last NfS was exactly that lower-budget minimal attempt at getting the franchise back to a point of smaller scope. Outdated open world (with hardly any story content padded with so much filler) often full of areas lacking in clutter or detail - very not-2019-looking result - all looking kinda ok because Frostbite can make anything look quite shiny & car games live on shiny bodywork & wet tarmac at night. Other than the bit where the anti-aliasing broke & turned it into a mess (although that same bug was in at least the previous NfS game too so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ).

I mentioned them a few threads ago, but I guess now is a more appropriate time to mention them:

Hoonigans.

Get your tone and vibe from how The Hoonigans geek out about cars; in fact, bring some of them on, like how Codemasters worked with Donut, and... Oh wait, EA has Codemasters now.

Fuck it. Colab with Donut Media and The Hoonigans and everything should fall into place.

@shivoa:I don't know about that, Star Wars Squadrons wasn't a full price game for example.

Anyway, what I specifically meant what that they get rid of the open world conceit altogether, not just make it more condensed or whatever, just return to a system based on a progression of entirely separate tracks like in the first few games. Hell, I'd rather have them make it a cheap driving game roguelite with procedurally generated levels than another city where "every road is a challenge".

I would like to see an Underground 3 or a cel-shaded one a la Auto Modellista but I see nails in the coffin for its future more than anything else.

@fisk0: I do not want a roguelite Need for Speed. Track randomization is okay in a throwback arcade racer but too much about games like Need for Speed is about learning the track. Also hand crafted tracks allow for much better gameplay experiences because there are specific pass points and choke points and the like that really give a race rhythm and tension, vs just random elements.

A track-based Need for Speed could be good, but I doubt they'll do it, mostly because of how expensive it is to make that many roads that you only drive on once. Games like Forza or GT often re-used assets and get a boost for having famous real life tracks, but for Need for Speed having an open world that can be remixed into various tracks just makes economic sense. I'm not against it from a gameplay perspective, I just think it may be impractical.

I believe Need for Speed The Run was the last game where they had just a bunch of tracks, and that game was very bad (not necessarily because of that decision) and flopped.

I am probably only 1 of a handful of people that would consider trying the NFS games if they had an actual in-car perspective.

I find it very difficult to drive from a third-person view, and the first-person views (where you don't see your car at all) never seem to be in the right position. Even so, I would prefer an in-car view.

Obviously, that is not the only thing I need from a NFS game, but it would be a good start.

Definitely that for me too. Both third person and the camera-attached-to-the-license plate views are completely baffling to me. The first few games had excellent dashboards.