EA Delays Next 'Need for Speed' in Order To Focus on New 'Battlefield' Title

Electronic Arts has officially confirmed that it’ll be shifting its focus over to the next installment for its Battlefield franchise, delaying the new Need for Speed project.

According to the massive game publisher, the racing game’s developer Criterion Games has been temporarily taken off the project in order to help out EA DICE with the next Battlefield title. While information about the upcoming shooter remains scarce at this point, EA says it’s planning a release window sometime this fall. After its completion, Criterion will return to Need for Speed in 2022, so fans can rest assured that the new game is still going to happen. Despite the shift, EA will still be able to release at least one racing game this year thanks to its recent acquisition of Codemasters, the studio behind popular titles including the Dirt and Formula 1 franchises.

“There’s no way we would have made a decision like this without including [Criterion] and discussing this with them first, and the impact that they could have on [Battlefield],” said the company’s chief studios officer Laura Miele. “They’ve worked on Battlefront, they’ve worked on Battlefields, and they have a really tight, close collaborative partnership with DICE. I’m really confident that this is going to be a pretty positive win for them.” She went on to explain that Battlefield has now taken precedence due to the difficulties of developing that game under work-from-home conditions, at the same time also hoping to stagger its racing game releases so Criterion and Codemasters wouldn’t affect each other’s sales figures.

For more things gaming, Cold Iron Studios has dropped a fresh announcement trailer for its upcoming horde survival game Aliens: Fireteam.