The Need For Speed franchise is probably one of the most iconic racing series of games out there, giving gamers the fast thrills and sensations they wanted since 1994. Since the franchise started, it has brought a lot of money and popularity to Electronic Arts, the owner of the NFS IP (Intellectual Property).

That is why, when the rumors that EA might consider canceling the beloved racing franchise appeared, a lot of people were reticent about them. But, considering the fact that the latest game, NFS Undercover, didn't do so well in terms of sales or critical reception, some people think that we might not get to see another NFS game from the big corporation.

But now, as gaming magazine Joystiq reports, EA does have some changes prepared for the NFS franchise, but it isn't considering the termination of the project. Sources told the magazine that EA would task its Criterion studio, responsible for the very successful and critically acclaimed Burnout series of racing and destruction games, with the future NFS title. Also, the EA Black Box team, behind the previous NFS games, might face some serious layoffs.

The full plan reveals that while Criterion will develop a new game, based on its graphical engine developed for the Burnout games, the Black Box studio, which is responsible for the NFS and Skate series, will have its team severely slimmed and, depending on the final outcome after the layoffs, the two franchises might be moved to another studio.

The fact that EA has canceled the formation of an EA Vancouver studio last week, which would have housed both the Black Box and the EA Canada teams, coupled with the less than good sales results achieved this year by the big company, might spell the end of the NFS developer, but not that of the series.

All that's left for us to do is hope that EA will come forward with a concrete statement about the franchise and about the studio that brought us quite a lot of the games from the beloved series. Until then, the speculations will continue.