Confirmed: Electronic Arts closes Need for Speed studio |
Ó
Rumors of Electronic Arts cutting the Need for Speed series
is looking confirmed. A press release from the publisher officially announced that they will be closing the studio EA Black Box, home to the Need for Speed and Skate franchises.
Shutting down the studio is part of EA's restructuring plan that hopes to save them US$ 120 million in annual costs. Part of the plan is to reduce their overall workforce by 10%, or 1,000 people.
The press release also stated that Black Box is only one of at least nine studios and publishing locations that will be either consolidated or shut down. This means we can expect a lot more of EA's franchises to be in danger of being axed. I'm crossing my fingers that BioWare and Maxis won't be affected.
Now this is not official confirmation that EA is abandoning the Need for Speed franchise, but it's not looking good. Better to just look forward to Gran Turismo 5. We may not see it for a while, but at least we know it's coming.
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Comments [refresh]
You should have never stopped making the UNDERGROUND series!
Pro-Street and whatever the new one is ruined NFS
If anyone wanted an official track racing game they would buy an F1 or NASCAR game.
NFSU3 would have been great to see...
I mean, it's not like Skate was a huge success that killed Tony Hawk or anything, so why not get rid of it?
Dumbasses.
That's going too far. I mean, we didn't wan that NFS gets shut down, all we wanted was an improvement for the series.
I have no problem with buying EA products if they are worth the money. Recent examples are Dead Space and Mirror's Edge. Examples that aren't worth the money are the complete sports series and the recent NFS games.
NFS was a great franchise when it started, but after Underground 2 it continously degraded.
the NFS series has gotten stale in the last few releases. I didn't want EA to canel though, but a swift kick in the ass for creativity would have done the franchise well. Perhaps if or when this recession gets through EA will ressurect NFS or maybe some other studio will purchase the rights to the franchise and re-create NFS in their own vision.
NHL 09 was awesome
The only last good NFS game was Porsche Unleashed.
yeah. totally loved underground. thought it was the best in the franchise.
UNderground 2 and Most Wanted will always live on in my book. And on my 360. Yes, 360.
but ***** you, Electronic Arts, for closing the Need for Speed shop. We just want games similar to Underground, not the damn studio shut down. Even if it's for money issues, don't kill the series, SELL IT.
Really? I thought Porsche Unleaashed was the worst around the psx generation. NFSIII was amazing, and if you had friends over, avoiding cops together at the time was awesome.
And does anyone remember NFSII? When you were not busy driving the McLaren F1, you used the cheat code system to enter anything practically and your car became that. "Logme" and your car was a Log. Just a log, going 80 miles per hour down a road. "Trexme" and you became, that's right a T-Rex. Those cheats were great, especially the outhouse.
I will gurantee you that the SKATE series is not dead. they may have closed the studio, but that does not mean that they wont move the people in it, or at least some of the people in it to a different one. I can see NFS being shut down until later. But there is no way the skate series is going to die. Not that easy.
Well skate 2 is still coming out. They're still making the skate franchise in another studio(accordin g to their forums) but I can't say for NFS series.
I thought they would have made a but load of cash from the ingame advertisements. Try playing Prostreet and not seeing an ad while driving.
Underground was alright but where they really were starting it best was Most Wanted. I think they should have used the same formula as Most Wanted but maybe with a different location, more vehicles and a longer all out game with a Need For Speed: Most Wanted 2. That would have been a huge hit I am betting.
I don't have a 360, only the original XBOX. I own Most Wanted for XBOX but if I had a 360, I would rebuy it for the 360. That is the most raddest racing game out there. I still occasionally play it again from time to time.
the underground series wasn't made by black box i believe, does that mean we can start seeing some better need for speed games?
I enjoyed the NFS series up to Underground.
The recently released Undercover was fail, because "OMG YOU CAN DO BURNOUTS NOW?!"
EA needs to step up their game (no pun intended) because they rush their games and ultimately come out crying.
I am looking at you, EA Sports.
The NFS franchise is dead. The last game I truly enjoyed was Hot Pursuit 2, but Underground 1 was pretty good.
There is nothing wrong with scrapping the NFS franchise name, at least until they decide to make a good racing game.
That being said, it's too bad they were shut down so close to Christmas...
Underground sucked, they should had made an open-world version of Porche 2000 instead, which is still the best NFS to date. Maybe throw in a few cars from underground, but don't mess up the tuning options!
Porsche 2000 was the best NFS.
If you've ever played it you know what I mean.
If you havn't, get a copy of it and play seriously for a week.
then you'll hate all the other ones.
Porche Unleashed (aka Porsche 2000) was the best NFS ever!
I don't understand how people like underground after that game...
Hot Pursuit 2 was a huge dissapointment after Porsche 2000!
And what's up with helicopters throwing explosives at you anyway?
To me, NFS HP2 was the game that killed the NFS series.
I liked all of the NFS games, more or less. I'm disappointed they are going. I have to admit, though, Underground 2 was my favorite. I would have loved to see a NFS:U3.
After NFS: Porsche, the game became just too arcadeish, it was becoming just another EA crap game...