Criterion-developed Need For Speed coming next year @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on November 10, 2009

News: With a Medal of Honor reboot in the works as well.

When Electronic Arts revealed their reboot of the Need For Speed franchise, they hinted that a fourth game was secretly in development and would be released sometime in the future. During their quarterly earnings call yesterday, Frank D. Gibeau, President of EA Games, confirmed that gamers would see a new Need For Speed title next year and that it is being developed by the Criterion, the team behind the Burnout series:

Next year's Need For Speed has been under development now for some time at our award-winning Criterion studio.

That was the only mention of the Criterion-developed Need For Speed game coming next year. No other information about the game was announced.

However, EA was proud to reveal that the Need For Speed series has been doing very well since it was relaunched earlier this year. The company acknowledged that the last few Need For Speed games weren't that great while simultaneously crowing about Need For Speed: Shift's review scores and sales numbers:

Need For Speed is one of EA's most powerful and globally recognized franchises. But in recent years, we failed to put adequate resources behind this franchise and as a result, quality suffered. I'm happy to say we fixed that. This year's game, Need For Speed: Shift, launched six weeks earlier and posted a quality rating 22 points higher. We have already shipped 2.5 million units in the quarter. In September, it was the number one title in Europe and in the top ten in North America.

Finally, Mr. Gibeau let loose with the news that EA plans to perform a similar reboot with the Medal of Honor franchise, but he offered up no other details:

In the months ahead, you will hear more about our plans to revitalize core IP, including the Medal of Honor franchise.

We'll have more soon.