Electronic Arts have caused a bit of a stir in the racing game community this week after announcing that the next Need For Speed game will be delayed by one year. The game was originally scheduled for release in late 2021.
The studios owned by EA have had their development assignments reshuffled, resulting in Criterion, the team behind the Need For Speed games being reassigned to help EA Dice with Battlefield 6 development.
The current pandemic has caused some trouble for EA’s management this past year, the publisher recently took Anthem development away from Bioware and essentially shut the game down for good, and more changes will be coming soon after the announcement of the promised 2021 Need For Speed game not coming this year at all.
Despite this news, we’re no closer to having any solid details on Battlefield 6. The game is still unnamed and was originally meant to be releasing alongside the new Need For Speed game later this year. But now, with the NFS launch delayed, we can’t be sure if Battlefield 6 will release on time either.
It’s not all bad news though. Fans will be pleased to know that this won’t be the first time Criterion and EA Dice have worked together, they both worked on the Star Wars: Battlefront games. Criterion also did some work on the last Battlefield release, Battlefield V. We get it, Battlefront and Battlefield V weren’t held in the highest regard by fans, but the mechanics and development side of the games were solid. We’ll put any blame for the bad rep these games had on the publisher EA.
The good news for Need For Speed fans; the game is not cancelled, just postponed. EA hope to have the game finished and released sometime in 2022. Nobody likes to see their favorite game franchise thrown to the side for another, but the reality is, Battlefield is a way bigger franchise right now, and with game development already facing issues due to the pandemic, the choice was easy for EA. Delay the smaller game so the bigger game can release on time.
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