14 DAY TRIAL // Need for Speed: Rivals developer Ghost Games is now in charge of the NFS franchise for Electronic Arts, as Criterion Games, the studio behind last year's Most Wanted, is busy handling another project.
The Need for Speed franchise went through several troubled phases and, after a period of trying to find new niches, with the likes of NFS: Shift, NFS: The Run, or NFS: Hot Pursuit, it began to win back some of its older popularity.
Now, with NFS: Rivals, new developer Ghost Games wants to set a core direction for the racing series and, as a result, it will be the only team in charge of the series for Electronic Arts.
"It cannot go from black to white between Black Box and Criterion, and that's why we're now thinking about the brand as Ghost owns it," Ghost boss Marcus Nilsson told Videogamer.
"We're going to build it, we're going to build it on Frostbite 3, [and] people will see something they are familiar with every time we release the game. And I think that is the core basis of building a brand; that people know what to expect."
Jumps between different developers and genres caused confusion, according to Nilsson, so Rivals will set up the expectations of players for the next stage of the franchise.
"When you go from a Shift experience to The Run experience to a Hot Pursuit experience, then it loses credibility," Nilsson continued. "I think we now have the work of re-establishing that credibility with building the brand. You know, it's still a really strong brand, absolutely. We just need to make sure people know what to expect when they get it, and Rivals is absolutely the first step toward that."
Nilsson also ruled out seeing games made by Ghost and Criterion released in alternate years, as the other studio is busy on its own new project.