This year's Need for Speed game is a "full reboot" of the iconic racing series, and is due to launch this fall for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC, developer Ghost Games announced today, following numerous teases. Ghost isn't sharing much in the way of specifics about the game (look for more at E3, general manager Marcus Nilsson tells GameSpot), but the studio has shared a teaser trailer.
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Need for Speed - Teaser Trailer
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What we do now know are high-level points about the new Need for Speed game. First, the game (which is inspired by the Underground series but doesn't have a name yet) will be an open-world, day-to-night racer featuring "deep customization," car culture by way of a partnership with EA's own Speedhunters, and even an "immersive narrative" that Ghost says will pull players through the game.
We recently had a chance to speak with Nilsson about the new Need for Speed game. Among other things, he talked about how an extra year of development benefited the game, the pressure he feels working on such an iconic series, and why story--yes, story--will play a major role in the new title.
"Need for Speed needs to understand what it really is," Nilsson told GameSpot. "What are the core values of the brand, what are the types of experiences that we want to give to gamers? And sometimes it can be hard to do that when you have different development teams in different parts of the world. So the theory, or the strategy, for us was to become the owners of Need for Speed."
NilssonAfter Ghost was finished with Xbox One and PS4 launch title Need for Speed Rivals, the studio formulated an idea for a "very specific game."
"To build that specific game, we needed time and needed to understand from fans: what is the type of game you want us to build?" Nilsson said. "So what we've been doing in this year off is we've been trying to understand what people think Need for Speed should be standing for."
The end result of spending an extra year on development is a better overall product, Nilsson says.
"What people get from this year that we didn't ship a game, is they get a game that delivers on all the core tenets of what Need for Speed should be. And they get that in a very high quality form," he explained.
"Not really, if I'm perfectly honest with you. Need for Speed, ten years ago, sold a lot more copies than it sells now," Nilsson said. "Which means we have a lot of room to move up. We have a global, known brand; it's strong. But I think we have a lot of upside for this franchise based upon getting our details and information and features in order. I don't feel pressure by it. I feel humbled to be associated with it."
"We are taking a very innovative approach to how we tell a story. That's actually probably as much as I can say at this time," Nilsson explained. "If you just go back three years with Need for Speed: The Run, there were stories in Need for Speed. Absolutely not the best executed stories. But we had stories. And I think a missing piece from the last games we had has been narrative. I think we can deliver a better game to our fans if we connect to them emotionally through story."
"We're doing a lot more with that now," Nilsson said about the new Need for Speed's online mode.
In the single-player story, other people can enter your game and interact with you. "So it creates a very almost distraction-based gameplay for you as you play in this world," he said.
Ghost Games, based in Sweden, is a subsidiary of EA. More information about the game will be announced during EA's E3 briefing, which is scheduled for Monday, June 15, at 1 PM PDT
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