EA has shifted Criterion Games off of its current Need for Speed project to help EA DICE with development on the next Battlefield game.
This game, which is currently untitled, is expected to release this Fall on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, and it seems DICE needed some extra help getting the game ready for that release, according to a new report from Polygon. EA insists that Criterion Games will return to development of its Need for Speed title in 2022, though.
Criterion took over development on Need for Speed in 2020 after three tepidly received entries from Ghost Games. It previously worked on the series, and it remastered Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit last year. Once the studio has finished work on Battlefield, it will return to the Need for Speed game, which is coming to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One as well as other platforms.
Although EA chief studios officer Laura Miele didn’t reveal any other details about the next Battlefront just yet, she said that it’d be “a love letter to our fans.” She noted that EA is putting “all the resources we have on this.”
The temporary reassignment of Criterion comes amid a broader restructuring at EA. Last week, the publisher canceled the overhaul of Anthem and it reportedly shut down work on a game called Gaia after six years of development. The publisher also ditched its plan to have multiplayer elements in the next Dragon Age game, according to a report.
