It’s been over two years since the release of Need for Speed: Unbound and publisher EA has now officially confirmed end of support for the game as developer Criterion Games joins the development for the next Battlefield title. This effectively means Need for Speed: Unbound will no longer receive any new DLC or other in-game bonus contents as Criterion is currently working on the next entry in the Battlefield series of games, alongside Sweden-based developer DICE, Star Wars: Squadrons developer Motive and U.S.–based studio Ripple Effect (formerly known as DICE LA).
However, players of Need for Speed: Unbound can continue to enjoy the game along with all of it’s bonus contents just as before, with Vince Zampella, Head of Respawn & Group GM for EA Studios Organization assuring all fans of the franchise that the Need for Speed series will be back eventually in “new and interesting ways.”
“The Need for Speed team at Criterion are joining their colleagues working on Battlefield,” he continued, “as a company, it was important to us to take the last year to listen to our Need for Speed community and use their feedback to create content for Unbound. With an increased understanding of what our players want in a Need for Speed experience, we plan to bring the franchise back in new and interesting ways.”
While this does sound a bit vague, it just means that the Need for Speed series is currently taking a detour but will re-emerge in even better and bigger ways than ever before. It also goes to show that the series is in real need for some re-invention and perhaps re-imagining, as even though Unbound was a solid entry in the franchise, it saw significantly less number of sales compared to it’s predecessor, Need for Speed: Heat. It seems EA is also aware of the fact that the Need for Speed series needs some fundamental level innovations to put itself back on track again or franchise fatigue may hold it back in more ways than one.
Need for Speed: Unbound was released in 2022 for the PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC to generally positive reviews.
