EA's Ghost Studio Takes Control of Need for Speed Franchise

EA’s Ghost studio has taken control of the Need for Speed franchise.

Speaking to Videogamer, studio head Marcus Nilsson explained that the brand “needs continuity” in order to maintain its identity.

"It cannot go from black to white between Black Box and Criterion, and that's why we're now thinking about the brand as Ghost owns it,” Nilsson said. “We're going to build it, we're going to build it on Frostbite 3, [and] people will see something they are familiar with every time we release the game. And I think that is the core basis of building a brand; that people know what to expect."

Nilsson explained that Need for Speed -- which shifted hands from Black Box (Need for Speed: The Run) to Criterion (Need for Speed Most Wanted) and now to Ghost (Need for Speed Rivals) -- “loses credibility” as a result of not remaining consistent.

“I think we now have the work of re-establishing that credibility with building the brand,” he said. “You know, it's still a really strong brand, absolutely. We just need to make sure people know what to expect when they get it, and Rivals is absolutely the first step toward that. Need For Speed is not going to go away, right? It's not the final or last step of that. But what you see in Rivals, a lot of those things will carry on going forward and myself and Rivals will be involved in shaping that."

As for whether the franchise will alternate between Criterion and Ghost in the future, Nilsson said, “no, you're not going to see that,” adding that “there's a small part of Criterion working on something else. Criterion is absolutely helping us out a lot on this game and would we make something next year or whenever we do it, it's going to be something that is ultimately driven from Ghost."

Last year, Criterion announced it was in control of the Need for Speed franchise, but has since been said to be moving away from making racing games. Ghost, meanwhile, was formerly known as EA Gothenburg before finally announcing its official name last year.

We’ve reached out to EA for clarification about the franchise and will update this story with any comment we receive. Need for Speed Rivals will be released on November 19th for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and has been confirmed as a launch title for both Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

For more on what’s new in Rivals, be sure to read our hands-on impressions from Gamescom.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following @garfep on Twitter or garfep on IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com