Need For Speed is a long-running series of racing video games from publisher EA and its numerous internal developers. It was originally created by the Canadian Distinctive Software, which later became EA Canada, in 1994.
Each game in the series has a slightly different focus and examines street racing culture through a different lens. The series releases on a yearly basis, but this changing focus allows things to keep fresh.
Need For Speed is the biggest racing franchise in the world, and one of the most successful video game franchises of all time, with over 100 million copies in the series sold as of October 2009.
A movie based on the series is in development at Dreamworks Pictures for release in February 2014.
Games[edit]
- The Need For Speed - 1996 - Microsoft Windows, Playstation
- Need For Speed II - 1997 - Microsoft Windows, Playstation
- Need For Speed III: Hot Pursuit - 1998 - Microsoft Windows, Playstation
- Need For Speed: High Stakes - 1999 - Microsoft Windows, Playstation
- Need For Speed: Porsche Unleashed - 2000 - Microsoft Windows, Playstation 2, Xbox, GameCube
- Motor City Online - 2001 - Microsoft Windows
- Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 - 2002 - Microsoft Windows, Playstation 2, Xbox, GameCube
- NFS: Underground - 2003 - Microsoft Windows, Playstation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Playstation Portable, Nintendo DS, GameBoy Advance
- Need For Speed: Underground 2 - 2004 - Microsoft Windows, Playstation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Playstation Portable, Nintendo DS, GameBoy Advance
- Need For Speed: Underground Rivals - 2005 - Playstation Portable
- Need For Speed: Most Wanted - 2005 - Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, Wii, Playstation 2, Mobile, Playstation Portable, Nintendo DS, GameBoy Advance
- Need For Speed: Carbon - 2006 - Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, Wii, Playstation 2, Mobile, Playstation Portable, Nintendo DS, GameBoy Advance, GameCube, Xbox
- Need For Speed: ProStreet - 2007 - Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, Wii, Playstation 2, Mobile, Playstation Portable, Nintendo DS
- Need For Speed: Undercover - 2008 - Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, iOS, Playstation 2, Mobile, Playstation Portable, Nintendo DS
- Need For Speed: Shift - 2009 - Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, iOS, Mobile, Playstation Portable
- Need For Speed: Nitro - 2009 - Wii, Nintendo DS
- Need For Speed World - 2010 - Microsoft Windows
- Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit - 2010 - Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, iOS, Wii, Mobile
- Shift 2: Unleashed - 2011 - Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, iOS
- Need For Speed: The Run - 2011 - Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, Wii, iOS
- Need For Speed Most Wanted - 2012 - Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, iOS, Playstation VITA
Black Box Restructuring[edit]
Post 2005's Need For Speed: Most Wanted, the Need For Speed series saw a dramatic decrease in both consumer interest and critical acclaim. The games began to move far away from the customization and heavy action that had made the series so successul with sim titles like Need For Speed: Shift, and online titles such as Need For Speed World. In 2010, EA announced that the decline in series quality came from their overworking of Black Box Studios, who had been shouldering the weight of development on the series on its own at the time. Since then, the studio has been developing games on a bi-annual basis, switching off with Criterion as main developers on the series.
