
The EA-owned British game development studio Criterion Games has been making racing games for decades now and is most well known for its Burnout and Need for Speed games. The studio even developed Need for Speed Unbound, the most recent entry in the popular arcade racing franchise of EA. While the game has received an extended lifespan thanks to the studio's continuing updates, it doesn't look like a new entry is anywhere on the horizon as EA seems to be putting Need for Speed on ice for a while.
In a statement to IGN, Vince Zampella, Head of Respawn and Group GM for EA Studios, revealed that all of Criterion are now working on the next Battlefield. He did confirm that Need for Speed will return at some point, though its unclear just how long of a wait fans have ahead of them.
"The Need for Speed team at Criterion are joining their colleagues working on Battlefield," said Zampella. "As a company, it was important to us to take the last year to listen to our Need for Speed community and use their feedback to create content for Unbound. With an increased understanding of what our players want in a Need for Speed experience, we plan to bring the franchise back in new and interesting ways."
It was in early 2024 that EA and Criterion revealed the second year of post-launch updates for Need for Speed Unbound. Despite a majority of the studio's resources being moved to help with the next Battlefield in 2023, a core group at Criterion had been retained to continue its racing focus. Even this team is now fully focused on Battlefield, as per Zampella's comment.
The next Battlefield experience does not have a name or release date attached to it, but EA just kicked off a brand-new community testing initiative earlier today. Battlefield Labs will let community players test out pre-alpha builds of the game to direct the development ahead of a full reveal of the title and launch. So far, DICE, Motive, Criterion, and Ripple Effect studios from EA are working on the game, with Vince Zampella directing the entire movement.
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