Racing game fans generally have had a lot of options this past generation, both good and bad. There's the simulation racers like Gran Turismo, Forza Motorsport, Project Cars, Assetto Corsa, and more. Then there's the arcade-like racing games like The Crew, Trackmania, and the biggest perhaps being Need for Speed. At least, that's how it used to be. Nowadays, Need for Speed often finds itself in a very middling position in the racing game genre. "Hit or miss" is the best way to describe this series, especially in the last decade of games released. The few high points like 2010's Hot Pursuit and more recently Need for Speed Heat in 2019 have all been marred by severe lows.
With a new generation of racing games on the way alongside the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, the future of the Need for Speed franchise is more uncertain than ever. Primary development of the series has now moved back to Criterion games, the former developers of Burnout. The Ghost Games studio, which developed various entries in the series including Need for Speed Heat, has been repurposed into a supplementary development studio for various EA titles. Criterion at the helm of the franchise could mean more of the same, which isn't what Need for Speed needs to reach its former reputation. Need for Speed needs a revamp from a foundational gameplay perspective.
Need for Speed's Identity Crisis Undermines Itself
For many fans, it's become low-hanging fruit at this point to emphasize Need for Speed (2015) and Need for Speed Payback as the franchise's lowest points. The truth is that, even with the latest Need for Speed Heat making nominal improvements to many gameplay aspects, the game was still a disappointment. Even leading to the shuttering of Ghost Games, Heat simply didn't make enough changes to the formula to warrant a resurgence in Need for Speed's popularity. The story was a bit more grounded, the abundance of race events was a blessing and a curse, and the handling was different but not better. It's almost as if the franchise is in design purgatory.
Perhaps the biggest criticism weighed against Need for Speed in its current framework is the franchise's identity crisis: Criterion-developed Need for Speed games have a heavy emphasis on brake-to-drift cornering and Burnout-style handling, while any deviation from that featured slower/more ambiguous handling in a less engaging driving experience. The end result has been two very different models of a Need for Speed game, neither of which has reached the former highs of the franchise prior to 2010. Now, with next-gen consoles finally out, and a new Need for Speed game reportedly on track to release in 2021, it's hard to imagine anything is going to change.
Need for Speed Hasn't Been a Surefire Success for a While
Need for Speed needs to truly reinvent itself, not just keep flip-flopping between some kind of Burnout amalgamation with the Need for Speed name on it, or something far worse. The Criterion brake-to-drift handling design effectively removes any form of skill or precision when cornering, and yet numerous Need for Speed game since 2010's Hot Pursuit have implemented it. The desire to oversimplify an arcade-like racing experience and appeal to a majority audience has made nearly every Need for Speed game either identical to the previous one, or worse. With Criterion now helming the franchise exclusively for the near future, that's probably not going to change.
Alleged leaked development footage from the 2021 Need for Speed game seem to indicate another Burnout-style game, albeit in a very early development stage. However, it does hammer the point home that the super arcade-like status quo of Need for Speed is still going to continue in 2021's entry. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit's remaster is further proof of this, which was actually a critically acclaimed Need for Speed game with the simplistic drifting mechanics. However, if the franchise keeps coasting on Criterion's designs solely, future entries are going to continue looking and playing like the last Need for Speed game that came out a few years prior.
There's a reason why 2010's Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit and 2012's Need for Speed: Most Wanted are indistinguishable from each other without context. Both games were fine examples of Criterion's work, but another entry like the aforementioned games isn't a surefire success anymore. Need for Speed Heat appealed to the original 2005 Most Wanted fans in several different ways, but it was still a very different game. Need for Speed has reinvented itself narratively and stylistically several times, and that's totally fine. So long as the driving mechanics still remain this simplistic ideal of an arcade-like racing experience, then 2021's entry will just be more of the same.
A Need for Speed game is in development for 2021.