Sources are telling us that a new Need for Speed title is in development at EA’s Gothenburg studio under the leadership of Alex Ward from Criterion. While we know that Ward was said to be working with the Gothenburg team, we also know that Criterion will have significant involvement in all Need for Speed titles going forward.
The talent at the Gothenburg studio features a collection of developers that have worked on a number of racing titles, including Project Gotham Racing; Need for Speed: The Run; RACE Pro; and Forza Horizon. With a collection of developers that have a talent for racing games, it does seem likely that this is what they are working on.
While EA has not formally announced what Gothenburg is working on we do know that it will use DICE’s Frostbite 2 engine, as with most everything else coming out of EA these days. Rumors suggest that it is very likely that Gothenburg will replace Black Box as the other Need for Speed development studio, but EA isn’t talking and actually we didn’t expect them to. Their focus right now is clearly on the release of Need for Speed: Most Wanted that Criterion has developed, which will be released on October 30th in North America and November 2nd in Europe.
