Napalm Riot

From http://games.internode.on…ent.php?mode=news&id=3256

With all the recent releases of racing games lately, the Need For Speed series has been noticeably slipping in quality with recent instalments. Need for Speed: Pro Street - the most recent title was relatively disapointing for fans of the series, met with a less than stellar reception.

The release of GRID, Gran Turismo 5: Prologue and Forza Motorsport 2 have all dealt significant blows to the reputation of Need For Speed, trumping the current Need For Speed titles with increased libraries of vehicles, more tracks, or more exacting details when it comes to modifying the underlying mechanics of a car.

Today, we've got some information regarding the future of the Need For Speed series, and why it's potentially been slipping quality wise in recent times.

John Riccitiello, EA CEO has recently spoken regarding the development cycles of Need For Speed games, and has expressed concern over the care of his employees working in the Vancouver EA studio, which has been responsible for the Need For Speed series.

"We were torturing a very talented group of people up in Vancouver, which makes it harder to be innovative ever year. So, I think we are going to get better from here. Last summer we added head count and split the team in two, so now there are two teams on a 24 month cycle. And this is sort of their first 16 and a half month game ... because we didn't do it far enough ago to give us a full two year dev cycle."

If all that's a bit unclear - what it really means is this: Previously, one team had 12 months to develop a single Need For Speed game, which meant releasing one game a year - while also keeping up with the latest and greatest technology. With slight restructuring in place, there will be two teams working simultaneously on separate games, with the target of one Need For Speed game each 24 months from each studio. With an overlapping time frame, that still means one Need For Speed game each year... only with less "tortured" developers.

Riccitiello also let on a little bit of information regarding the upcoming Need For Speed: Undercover, which appears to be a step back towards Need For Speed Underground 2, and the likes of earlier titles, along with introducing a little bit of innovation: Undercover will have a storyline and mission structures which could be compared to movies like The Transporter.

While no other details regarding Need For Speed: Undercover have been released, we'll keep you posted as we get them.

Lets hope that game developers get more rest time.