Electronic Arts has paused all work on its popular Need for Speed franchise and aligned developer Criterion Games to work on the next Battlefield title, a report claimed Monday. The development comes as EA shared pre-alpha gameplay footage of the next Battlefield game and announced its plans for a new community testing program. While all of Criterion is now aiding development on the military shooter franchise, EA intends to return to the NFS franchise at some point.
Criterion Working on Next Battlefield
Vince Zampella, head of Respawn Entertainment at EA who is now in charge of Battlefield, told Eurogamer Monday the NFS developer was now working on the shooter.
“The Need for Speed team at Criterion are joining their colleagues working on Battlefield. As a company, it was important to us to take the last year to listen to our Need for Speed community and use their feedback to create content for Unbound,” Zampella told the publication.
“With an increased understanding of what our players want in a Need for Speed experience, we plan to bring the franchise back in new and interesting ways,” he added.
Back in September 2023, EA had announced that Criterion would be joining the EA Entertainment fold at the company, overseen by Zampella. A majority of the studio would be working on the next Battlefield.
“As we’ve said before, we’re all-in on Battlefield. Today, Criterion is added to our world-class Battlefield studios dedicated to ushering in a new era for the franchise. The majority of the team will be working alongside DICE, Ripple Effect, and Ridgeline that are led by Byron Beede, GM of Battlefield,” Zampella had said at the time.
However, the executive had said a core group at Criterion would continue to work on what was next for the NFS franchise, as well. Since then, Need of Speed Unbound, the last game in the NFS franchise, has received additional content updates.
Criterion has worked on the Need for Speed franchise since 2010 and has assisted development on Battlefield games since 2016’s Battlefield 1.
Details on Next Battlefield Game
EA is hard at work on the next entry in the series that directly competes with Activision’s Call of Duty. Following player backlash on 2021’s Battlefield 2042, the company has promised to incorporate feedback and return to franchise roots for the next title.
The next Battlefield is confirmed to return to a modern setting and bring back 64-player maps. EA had shared these details and had revealed concept art from the game in September 2024.
On Monday, the company finally showed off a short clip of pre-alpha gameplay from the next Battlefield and announced Battlefield Labs, a community testing program that would help the final game incorporate player feedback.