EA shelves racing franchises to focus on shooters

The commercial impact of Need for Speed Unbound, initially released in the market back in 2022, fell short of expectations and served as the trigger for this drastic change in the board's direction. Despite being reasonably well-received by both the gaming community and critics, the financial returns did not meet the ambitious goals set by Electronic Arts. The American giant's response was swift and ruthless: reallocating manpower to brands that promise more aggressive revenue streams. It's a glaring instance of corporate short-sightedness to witness a huge company simply abandon entire traditional genres just because one game did not break box office records.

The confirmation of this internal reorganization was publicly shared by Rebecka Coutaz, who serves as vice president and general manager of Battlefield Studios Europe, during a recent conversation with the portal IGN. When asked whether the approaching thirtieth anniversary of Criterion Games might yield the reveal of a new automotive title for fans, the executive dashed any hopes bluntly, stating that the group of developers has no time to dwell on past projects and that the absolute priority in the offices is named Battlefield. This cold stance doused any remaining hopes for those looking to see the company value its own legacy of successes.

This complete transition of personnel poses an extreme risk to the survival of other historic intellectual properties that were under the stewardship of the British studio.

The iconic Burnout brand, celebrated in the history of video games for its high-speed gameplay and impressive vehicular destruction mechanics, remains entirely neglected with no development plans for the current generation of consoles. The owner of the franchise has opted to place all their bets on massive scale productions dominating the competitive action arena. While speed enthusiasts find themselves with a lack of substantial options in the market, the team is focusing its efforts on the forthcoming Battlefield 6, which will feature structural innovations such as Operation Augur — a novel game mode that eliminates player spawn directly on objectives and combines two large-scale maps.

This behind-the-scenes movement implies that the American publisher has practically ended investments in the future of the classic Need for Speed series, reallocating the operational resources of Criterion Games. The UK team, renowned for decades in the industry for its unmatched expertise in high-quality arcade racing deliveries, has been definitively absorbed by the European branch focused on first-person shooter games. Dismantling a studio specializing in driving to transform it into mere support for shooter games highlights the industry's most generic and unimaginative side, preferring to saturate the market with repetitive content rather than maintain diversity in its release catalog.