EA has decided to hit the restart button and split the franchise into 3 different franchises: ‘core’, ‘casual’ and MMO.
Electronic Arts has decided to revamp the NFS franchise, which doesn’t come as a surprise seeing as the franchise was on a slow road downhill since Most Wanted‘s success.
Basically, the franchise will be split into three: a “core” product, a lighter product for casual gamers and an MMO. Surprisingly enough, EA saw fit to reveal more details:
Need for Speed: Shift will be the “core” product, releasing for PC, Xbox 360, PS3 and PSP this autumn. Developed by the team that does GTR, Shift will shift away (pardon the pun) from the previous title that involved urban racing and terrible hip-hop.
It seems that the focus will now go to making the races less arcade-style and more oriented towards giving that “behind-the-wheel” feeling. In the words of marketing boss Keith Munro, “that athleticism of being in a wickedly-intense race”. Sounds great, Keith!
Need for Speed: Nitro will go to the Wii and DS, and will be the more arcade-oriented game of the three. Marketed for casual gamers no doubt, but EA asserts that it won’t be a Mario Kart clone.
“What you’ll see is that Nitro in no way resembles any other previous Need for Speed title.” Sounds good, but there isn’t a lot of info about this title.
Need for Speed: World Online is the MMO branch (anyone remember Motor City Online? No?) and it’ll be a ‘Play 4 Free’ game. You take licensed cars, “pimp” them up and race them against competitors from all across the world.
It will be released in Asia first, and then make its way to North America. It will give more content in terms of cars, mods etc. than another NFS game yet, and will boast sophisticated matchmaking systems, but I bet you knew that.
Lookin forward to Shift and World Online. First off I hope Shift brings back the fun that Most Wanted brought cause it seemed like after Carbon the NFS series was on a downward spiral. I enjoy the cop chases from Most Wanted and the semi-realistic handling from Pro Street so I hope both come together some way. As far as World Online goes, well I say bring it and I will play it!
IMO shift is a GT5, actually worse, a Forza wannabe.
Quote from IGN “replicating the true feeling of racing high-end performance cars like never before. Players are thrust into the heart of the action with immersive and exciting features including a stunningly realistic first-person cockpit view camera and an all-new crash mechanic” all that fansy description never mentioned even a little bit about a realistic physic engine. So shift is EA’s way to wrap a piece of shit with awesome wrapping paper and feed it to the moronic public.
However, if the GTR u mentioned above is the GTR developed by Simbin, and they are helping develop Shift, then it does sound it’s worth looking forward to. Simbin isn’t extremely good @ racing simulation, but at least they are in the same league with the good ones.