14 DAY TRIAL // The Need For Speed franchise is probably one of the most popular and iconic series of games in the whole racing genre. It debuted in 1994, when the first Need For Speed title, developed by Electronic Arts, hit the store shelves and the hearts of gamers worldwide.
Since then, almost fourteen titles have joined it, becoming one of the longest-running franchises for the big corporation. Its latest installment, Need For Speed Undercover, didn't really shine, although it promised to make the unsuccessful NFS: ProStreet title forgotten by going back to the roots of the series, with cops and illegal street racing. It managed relatively low sales and was met with mediocre ratings from critics in the gaming industry.
These reasons seem to have given birth to a quite sad rumor, namely that EA might cancel the long-running franchise. Electric Playground has reported that, according to its sources, all the future titles in the racing series have been canceled and that Undercover might be the last game in the beloved franchise. Contacted by 1up for comments, Colin Macrae, the director of communications for EA revealed that: “We're working through a process on people, products, and facilities at EA and don't have any announcements today.”
A classic no-comment statement that might make quite a lot of NFS fans out there angry, as the franchise, which brought a lot of profit to the company for quite some time, deserves a decent answer on its future. The fact that Electronic Arts has faced some bad sales with its latest lineup of games, along with its recent announcement made by its CEO, John Riccitiello, according to which games that didn't perform as expected would be discontinued, are also reasons for NFS fans to be worried.
All in all, a very sad rumor for all of the racing fans out there, who have been playing the games in the beloved franchise ever since its first iteration. The termination of the NFS series might also mean that a lot of layoffs will be made at the EA Black Box studio, as it was the most important project under development there. Let's just hope that EA will soon shed some light on this subject.