Need for Speed, also known by its initials NFS, is a series of racing video games published by Electronic Arts and developed by several studios including EA Black Box, Criterion Games and Ghost Games. The series released its first title, The Need for Speed in 1994. Initially, it was designed exclusively for use on fifth generation video game consoles, but later on was reworked to be able to be used on all seventh generation consoles by 2008. The title comes from a quote from character Maverick in the film Top Gun. All members of the series consist of racing cars on various tracks, with some titles including police pursuits in races. Since Need for Speed: High Stakes, the series has integrated car body customization into gameplay. Need for Speed is the most successful racing video game series in the world, and one of the most successful video game franchises of all time. Over 150 million copies of games in the series have been sold to date. In June 2012, following Black Box’s restructuring, British developer Criterion Games announced that it was in full control of the Need for Speed franchise.However, in August 2013, Swedish and British developers Ghost Games, Ghost Games UK and Criterion Games joined forces for the foreseeable future of the Need for Speed series. At the time, Ghost Games UK staff consisted of 80% of former Criterion Games employees. At E3 2012, Criterion vice president Alex Ward announced that random developers would no longer be developing NFS titles. Ward wouldn’t confirm that all Need for Speed games in the future would be developed entirely by Criterion, but he did say the studio would have “strong involvement” in them, and would have control over which NFS titles would be released in the future. In April 2013, Electronic Gaming Monthly published a report that Need for Speed: Underground could be the next NFS game. However that report was contradicted hours later by Ward.Initially it was suspected that Criterion would not be developing racing games in the short-term, but Ward clarified that he was speaking personally and not speaking for the studio. As of October 2013, there are no known Need for Speed titles in development apart from Rivals. In an interview with VideoGamer, the head of Ghost Games, Marcus Nilsson, stated that Ghost owned the Need for Speed franchise, and they were working to restore the credibility of the franchise.He also suggested a sequel to Underground 2 if the conditions were right. Later in the year, at the Eurogamer Expo, Mr. Nilsson hinted that the franchise might return to a style of progression in the future similar to the Underground – Most Wanted – Carbon series. The next title in the series, Need for Speed (2015), a full reboot of the franchise, will be released on November 3 2015 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One. The PC version will be released in early 2016.
