EA has said they acknowledge last year’s Need for Speed: The Run‘s below-average critical reception, with the Black Box-developed racer’s failures being addressed in Need for Speed: Most Wanted.
Speaking to CVG, EA Labels president Frank Gibeau stated that while he’s proud of the racer, he doesn’t “want a 60, I want an 80+”.
We’re not happy with the reception that we got on Need for Speed: The Run. We tried a lot of new things; we added linear moments and action scenes between level to try and spice it up… but frankly it just didn’t come together to the level of quality that I wanted or that the Need for Speed team wanted. So we’re going to try something different and Criterion is going to take a shot at innovating in that category.
Need for Speed: Most Wanted, which is being developed by Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and Burnout Paradise creator Criterion, will incorporate the feedback EA received from The Run:
[The Run] did well and there’s a lot about it that we really liked and were impressed with, but ultimately we want to make 80-90 rated games and it was a bit of a shock to see how poorly received it was with some editorial groups and customers. We don’t ignore that feedback, but we don’t curl up into a ball and cry either. We try to do something about it. Criterion were always planned to be on this next one. Now it’s the time to dial it up and go even bigger.
In regards to EA Black box, Gibeau confirmed the publisher won’t be changing its dual studio strategy:
We’re going to continue to pursue the dual strategy of alternating studios and that will always be the strategy, but we will optimise the business to maximise quality and to maximise what we need to do.
Need for Speed: Most Wanted, which will combine the best “sh*t” stemming from both Burnout Paradise and 2010’s Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, is due for a release on October 30th in North America and November 2nd within Europe.
