Back in the days of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, theNeed for Speedfranchise had just come off one its best entries to date and was sitting firmly at the top of its game as a leader in the industry. Just likeCall of Duty,FIFA, and the battle royale genre, there was a time when racing games were guaranteed hits with games likeForza,Burnout Paradise,Project Gotham Racing, andMidnight Cluball proving incredibly popular. And for a while,Need for Speedwas the king of them all because for everyNeed for Speed: The Run, there was aNeed for Speed: Most Wantedor aNeed for Speed: Shift.
Unfortunately, great things don’t last forever and the entire racing game genre started to take a back seat after the release of PS4 and Xbox One and the rise of online multiplayer games. What fewNeed for Speedgames have released this generation have failed to adapt to the new market and left fans completely underwhelmed. With the announcement that EA is releasingNeed for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remasteredearly next month, not the best entry in the series but a strong one nonetheless, could this be the first step in the right direction toward fixing years of damage to one of gaming’s most beloved franchises?
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The Rise and Fall of Need for Speed
Making its debut on in 1994 with the release ofThe Need for Speed, the series began as arealistic driving simulatorbefore quickly changing course with 1998’sNeed for Speed 3: Hot Pursuit, the first entry in the series to adopt more arcade-style gameplay and introduce police as enemy AI or optional playable characters; two decisions that shaped and define the franchise as it is today. By the end of the PS2 and original Xbox’s lifecycle,Need for Speedhad become a household name, releasing multiple entries back to back that are widely considered to be the best games in the franchise to this day:Need for Speed: Undergroundin 2003,Need for Speed: Underground 2in 2004, andNeed for Speed: Most Wantedin 2005.
After the one-two punch that wasUnderground 2andMost Wanted, 2006’sNeed for Speed: Carboncouldn’t meet the high bar that fans had come to expect and from there, EA’s annualized release schedule began to wear on the franchise as a whole. Racing games were still wildly successful andNeed for Speedwas no exception, however, sales were still declining and the perception of the series had changed. It seemed likeNeed for Speed: ShiftandNeed for Speed: Hot Pursuitquality gameswere too infrequent, particularly when both of those games came from different developers, with Slightly Mad Studios and eventually Criterion Games taking the reigns from the long-time series developer, EA Black Box.
Forza Horizon Takes the Lead
Toward the end of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 generation, Microsoft and new developer Playground Games releasedForza Horizon, a spin-off of the incredibly popularForza Motorsportseries with a focus on casual street racing and more arcade-style gameplay rather than being a realistic driving simulator. The original game released to critical acclaim in 2012,as did all three ofForza Horizon’s sequels.
With less room in the market and EA taking its first annual hiatus, only to come back with the critically pannedNeed for Speed(2015) reboot, theForza Horizongames began to dominate the market, so much so that bothForza Horizon 3andForza Horizon 4are considered to be some of the best racing games available, even outshining recentForza Motorsportgames. Obviously,Forzais an Xbox exclusive franchise, whereasNeed forSpeed is multiplatform,and it’s not the only well-received racing game to come out in recent years; look no further thanProject Cars 2,Dirt Rally 2.0,F1 2019, and evenBurnout Paradise Remastered. What it means is thatForza Horizondidn’t killNeed for Speed, it’s just one great example of how a juggernaut series climbed the ranks in a time when the previous leader was already years into a steep decline.
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Paving the Way for Most Wanted and Underground 2
The announcement that EA would be remasteringNeed for Speed: Hot Pursuitof all games in the franchise was a surprising one but it could easily be the first step in the right direction toward fixing fan perception. While not the best entry in the franchise, the 2010 reboot was the first game to be developed by Criterion Games and acted as a strong return to form for the series after games likeProStreetandUndercoverleft a bad taste in fans' mouths, currently sitting at an 88/100 for Xbox 360 on Metacritic.
All that EA needs to do is giveNeed for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remasteredthe love and care it deserves and prove to players why they should still care aboutNeed for Speed. IfHot Pursuit Remasteredis successful critically and commercially,that paves the way for EA to remaster (or preferably remake) the most beloved games in the series,Need for Speed: Underground 2andNeed for Speed: Most Wanted, two games that lapsed players would absolutely return for. Activision found great success returning to some of its older games likeCrash BandicootandTony Hawk, something that EA could learn from as long as it’s willing to put in the work.
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remasteredreleases on Aug 07, 2025, for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. A Nintendo Switch version releases on June 18, 2025.
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