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EA gasses up Need for Speed Undercover

By Tom Magrino, GameSpotPosted Jun 18, 2008 4:05 pm PT

Publisher's popular street racer being tuned for later this year; EA CEO says "we were torturing" Vancouver studio with short dev cycle.

EA's presence at the William Blair & Company Growth Stock Conference in Chicago has yielded more than a few sparkly gems of information concerning the publisher's upcoming lineup. One such bauble was a narrowed release window to Q1 2009 for BioWare's Dragon Age and Pandemic Studios' Saboteur. Another concerns the follow-up to 2006's Godfather, which will apparently feature a top-down strategy mode.

Yet one more gem concerns details of the next installment in the publisher's street-racing franchise Need for Speed. During a Q&A session with investors, EA CEO John Riccitiello said Need for Speed Undercover would roll out later this year.

Riccitiello, who in the past has expressed desire to vastly improve aggregate Metacritic scores across EA's board, first lamented the final outcome of last year's modestly received Need for Speed ProStreet. "I was pretty disappointed with Need for Speed last year," commented Riccitiello. "I thought it was OK game in terms of gameplay, if not good. But, who wanted ProStreet? It was this sort of made up, put numbers on the side of your car, and pretend to drive your Ferrari where, or your Porsche where?"

The outspoken CEO then laid out what EA plans to do to improve the Need for Speed franchise as its Vancouver studio gears up for Undercover. "This year, we are [making] Need for Speed Undercover, with a very strong mission structure along the lines of, I don't know if any of you saw movies like The Transporter," said Riccitiello, referring to the 2002 Corey Yeun-directed, Jason Statham-starring action film.

Expounding on how modeling a game after a low-rent film could ever be considered a good idea, Riccitiello said, "We resurrected the game when we brought out Most Wanted and then Undergound--the sort of chase and be chased, and the whole underground ethos of street racing at 3:00 in the morning...Now we're coming back with a strong narrative hook, and I feel really good about the title."

Riccitiello also noted that the Vancouver team developing the Need for Speed franchise has been both expanded and split into two. As an outcome of the move, Need for Speed titles will now be on a 24-month development cycle, as opposed to 12 months, since two independent teams will work on alternating installments.

"We were torturing a very talented group of people up in Vancouver, which makes it harder to be as innovative every year," commented Riccitiello. "I'm confident that Undercover is a much better game than ProStreet, and I expect that from this point forward that we'll do a lot better."

Riccitiello gave no indication of platforms or release dates for Undercover. However, previous installments have typically released mid-November on all relevant platforms.

306 Comments

  • hotrider12

    Posted Nov 22, 2008 1:13 am PT

    I told you guys this game is full of sh't now you know

  • codename-60091

    Posted Oct 29, 2008 5:30 am PT

    NOW, that's an apology that we want to hear as loyal fans!!! Since you made this statement, my flame on NFS is much more better!! NOW CUT THE NFS-UC retail PRICE more this time, OR I WONT BUY after u rip me off last time!!!!

  • hotrider12

    Posted Sep 13, 2008 11:46 pm PT

    can someone tell me how in the hell your working for the cops and being chase by the cops??

  • killmess

    Posted Aug 29, 2008 7:57 pm PT

    Most wanted FTW.
    I liked free roaming, daylight racing, good graphics, big world.
    I'd like something like grid, but need for speed way.
    Daylight(MW/GRID), good landscape(MW/GRID), free roaming(MW), good cars from the beginning(like GRID), easy to drive with the keyboard(MW), drift (underground 2,GRID), "DISTURBED" soundtrack(MW) "decadence-disturbed" on most wanted was the best music!.
    And for those who have a good wheel, three independient pedals and H gears.
    And NO DRAG RACING!!!

  • hotrider12

    Posted Aug 21, 2008 3:54 am PT

    just heard through the grapevine a need for speed movie coming out in 2010 ?? has anyone else heard that??? hope its not base on fast and the ferious movie

  • kwildgun

    Posted Aug 20, 2008 6:10 pm PT

    How about EA adding features and leaving them in, rather that messing the game up. I'm sick and tired of EA creating a totally awesome NFS game and then stripping ever element out of it with another iteration. My advise to EA! is to take NFS Underground 2 and use its core mechanics to build something fresh with new graphics (Shader Model 3.0 wink wink). An open world as big as Grand Theft Auto. A group of writers that can actually write a awesome story for the game. If EA wants to really bring NFS series back they need take 3-5 years rather 24 months. it is even more disturbing that they only took 12 months for Pro Street, that is why that game sucked b@##$. It looks to me like EA cares more about the money than they do quality. If EA buys out Take Two, then I'm not buying another Grand Theft Auto game as long as I live. I'll bet EA will give the development team less time to make a GTA game than Take Two did! After GTA4 the series is going down hill when EA takes over. Good Bye GTA I LOVE AND WILL ALWAYS MISS YOU>Can't believe the day would come when I would have to say this, how depressing
    P.S. Good Bye Need For Speed I LOVE AND WILL ALWAYS MISS YOU. EA you get my money no more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • hotrider12

    Posted Aug 19, 2008 2:52 am PT

    just heard through the grapevine a need for speed movie coming out in 2010 ?? has anyone else heard that??? hope its not base on fast and the ferious movie

  • PLAYER-ONE

    Posted Aug 18, 2008 4:30 pm PT

    what we really want is UNDERGROUND 3!!!! (just like underground 2, but with cops, and the cool speadbrreaker...oh and the NEON!!!)...better gameplay too...but somebody please tell me....WHAT HAPPENED TO THE NEON!!!

  • PLAYER-ONE

    Posted Aug 18, 2008 4:29 pm PT

    what we really want is UNDERGROUND 3!!!! (just like underground 2, but with cops, and the cool speadbrreaker...oh and the NEON!!!)...better gameplay too...but somebody please tell me....WHAT HAPPENED TO THE NEON!!!

  • hotrider12

    Posted Aug 18, 2008 1:59 pm PT

    in any event undercover should have re-play

  • hotrider12

    Posted Aug 18, 2008 12:45 pm PT

    Im playing NFS hotpursuit2 right now for the first time I witness the cop helicoptor shoot out a missle on me wow!!!!!!!! I thought only bomb barrels

  • hotrider12

    Posted Aug 18, 2008 11:21 am PT

    f undercover is like most wanted I will not buy it.
    why can't you next-gen player see most wanted is crappy??
    we need a classic NFS up-dated we dont need a black list to climb up, we dont need drifting. drag racing YES!!! added .... no more street racing b.s AND MOST OF ALL COP CHASING. any NFS game without cops
    is not worth buying!!!!!!!!!!!!
    prostreets is proof

  • thatmy

    Posted Aug 18, 2008 7:42 am PT

    Rubbish, EA! your torturing SHARK! same like Crysis! and many other gaames too so dun anyhow Bull lying us again!

  • afrosud12

    Posted Aug 18, 2008 5:48 am PT

    if midnight club LA uses Megan fox as their cover girl. they may as well just stop developing and save money on buying discs. cause MNC will have solid gameplay no questions asked. now NFS on the otherhand basically has to.... You know what, heck with it.

    Just make another NFS underground 2 with police chasing you, faster cars and better graphics cause really that would please us all.

    Hop to it EA

  • kartik24

    Posted Aug 18, 2008 12:40 am PT

    if they don't do something good midnight club will grab the hot seat I'm pretty sure...it looks hot!!

  • kartik24

    Posted Aug 18, 2008 12:38 am PT

    i have a feeling that this game will create quite a racket in the racing scene after all need for speed has gone through....it might make a solid come back...IT SHOULD!!!! if this isn't good i wouldn't bother to even look at the previews of the future of this series
    all the best nfs....we're watching.......

  • hotrider12

    Posted Aug 17, 2008 10:08 pm PT

    I agree with you uruhatrigger
    video of gameplay would be nice for crying out loud.
    more than a micro sec.

  • UruhaTrigger

    Posted Aug 17, 2008 8:47 pm PT

    It sounds really good but if they create another preview of the game....I hope they will have game-play photos or--even just a photo of what the game will look like....

  • LOVER2281

    Posted Aug 17, 2008 11:26 am PT

    I played all the Need For Speed games and i hoping this one is a bigger step up from Carbon & Most Wanted !!

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