Need for Speed (NFS) is a racing game franchise published by Electronic Arts. Most entries in the series are generally arcade racing games centered around illegal street racing, and task players with completing races of various types while evading police pursuit. Some entries also do not follow the basic setup of most titles and are instead simulation racers, focus on legal circuit races, feature kart racing game elements, or feature illegal street racing but do not also feature police pursuits. Need for Speed is one of EA's oldest franchises not published under their EA Sports brand.
The series' first title, The Need for Speed, was released in 1994. The last installment, Need for Speed Unbound, was released on December 2, 2022. Additionally, a free-to-play mobile installment released in 2015, Need for Speed: No Limits, was developed by Firemonkeys Studios (the developers of Real Racing 3).
The series titles have been overseen and developed by multiple notable teams over the years, including EA Canada, EA Black Box, Slightly Mad Studios, Criterion Games and Ghost Games. Several Need for Speed games have been well-received critically, and the franchise has been one of the most successful of all time, selling over 150 million copies as of October 2013. The franchise has expanded into other forms of media, including a film adaptation and licensed Hot Wheels toys.
History The Need for Speed series was originally developed by Distinctive Software, a video game studio based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Prior to Electronic Arts' purchase of the company in 1991, it had created popular racing games such as Stunts and Test Drive II: The Duel. After the purchase, the company was renamed Electronic Arts (EA) Canada. The company capitalized on its experience in the domain by developing the Need for Speed series in late 1992. EA Canada continued to develop and expand the Need for Speed franchise up to 2002, when another Vancouver-based developer, named Black Box Games, was acquired by EA and contracted to continue the series with Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2. Meanwhile, Slightly Mad Studios would develop the 2009 sim racing title, Need for Speed: Shift, and its 2011 sequel, Shift 2: Unleashed.
The UK-based Criterion Games would develop the 2010 Hot Pursuit title; a successor to 1998's Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit. The game introduced a social platform, titled Autolog, which allows players to track game progress, view leaderboards, share screenshots with friends, among other features. The 2010 Hot Pursuit game would be well-received; a remastered version was released ten years later in 2020. As a result of Hot Pursuits critical success, in-contrast to the mixed reception of the Black Box-developed installments since 2007's Need for Speed: ProStreet, Criterion would become the lead developer of the franchise going forward. At E3 2012, Criterion Games vice president Alex Ward announced that random developers would no longer be developing NFS titles. Ward wouldn't confirm that all Need for Speed games in the future would be developed entirely by Criterion, but he did say the studio would have "strong involvement" in them and would have control over which NFS titles would be released in the future.
In August 2013, following the downsizing of Criterion Games, EA Swedish developer Ghost Games would become the main studio for the franchise, and oversee its future development. At the time, 80% of Ghost Games' work force consisted of former Criterion Games employees. From 2013 to 2019, Ghost Games would develop Need for Speed Rivals, the 2015 franchise reboot, 2017's Need for Speed Payback, and 2019's Need for Speed Heat. While Rivals was positively-received, the 2015 reboot and its follow-ups received more mixed reviews.
In February 2020, Criterion regained oversight of the franchise, with its first release since then being 2022's Need for Speed Unbound. Meanwhile, several past entries (namely Need for Speed: Carbon, Need for Speed: Undercover, Shift, Shift 2 and Need for Speed: The Run), with the exception of 2010's Hot Pursuit, and 2012's Need for Speed: Most Wanted, became delisted from online stores. Their respective online servers were shut down on August 31, 2021.
As part of a larger company organization in September 2023, Criterion Games was shifted from EA Sports to EA Entertainment, with the majority of the studio working to support the Battlefield series, though a core group within Criterion continued to work on updates for Unbound according to EA's Vince Zampella. By February 2025, however, the Need for Speed franchise was placed on hold as EA shifted the whole of Criterion to work on Battlefield 6, with the studio being later rebranded as Criterion – A Battlefield Studio in August 2025. Whilst EA promised that the series would return in 'new and interesting ways', by July 2026, EA's Rebecka Coutaz confirmed that Criterion would be focused solely on the Battlefield series, thus leaving Need for Speed with no primary developer.
Gameplay Almost all of the games in the NFS series employ the same fundamental rules and similar mechanics: the player controls a race car in a variety of races, the goal being to win the race. In the tournament/career mode, the player must win a series of races to unlock vehicles and tracks. Before each race, the player chooses a vehicle and has the option of selecting either an automatic or manual transmission. All games in the series have some form of multiplayer mode allowing players to race one another via a split screen, a LAN or the Internet. Since Need for Speed: High Stakes, the series has also integrated car body customization into gameplay.
Although the games share the same name, their tone and focus can vary significantly. For example, in some games the cars can suffer mechanical and visual damage, while in other games the cars cannot be damaged at all; in some games, the software simulates real-car behavior (physics), while in others there are more forgiving physics.
With the release of Need for Speed: Underground, the series shifted from racing sports cars on scenic point-to-point tracks to an import/tuner subculture involving street racing in an urban setting. To date, this theme has remained prevalent in most of the following games.
Need for Speed: Shift and its sequel took a simulator approach to racing, featuring closed-circuit racing on real tracks like the Nürburgring and Laguna Seca, as well as the fictional street circuits in various cities like London and Chicago. The car lists include a combination of exotics, sports cars, and tuners in addition to special race cars.
Most of the games in the franchise include police pursuits in some form or other. In some of the games featuring police pursuit (e.g. Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit), the player can play as either the felon or the cop. The concepts of drifting and dragging were introduced in Need for Speed: Underground. These new mechanics are included in the tournament/career mode aside from the regular street races. In drift races, in games like Underground and Need for Speed (2015), the player must defeat other racers by totaling the most points, earned by the length and timing of the drift made by the player's vehicle. In drag races, the player must finish first to win the race, though if the player crashes into an obstacle or wall, the race ends. In Need for Speed Payback, the player has to earn a certain number of points to win; increase their multiplier based on how many points they get, whilst passing through a limited number of checkpoints.
The concept of car tuning evolved with each new game, from focusing mainly on the mechanics of the car to including how the car looks. Each game except Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit has car tuning which can set options for items like ABS, traction control, or downforce, or for upgrading parts like the engine or gearbox. Visual tuning of the player's car becomes important in tournament/career mode after the release of Need for Speed: Underground 2, when the appearance is rated from zero to ten points. When a car attains a high enough visual rating, the vehicle is eligible to be on the cover of a fictional magazine.
Like all racing games, the Need for Speed series features a list of cars, modeled and named after actual cars. Cars in the franchise are divided into four categories: exotic cars, muscle cars, tuners, and special vehicles. Exotic cars feature high performance, expensive cars like the Lamborghini Murciélago, Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, Chevrolet Corvette and the Ford GT; muscle cars refer to the Ford Mustang, Dodge Challenger and the Chevrolet Camaro; while tuner cars are cars like the Nissan Skyline and the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. The special vehicles are civilian and police cars that are available for use in some games, such as the Ford Crown Victoria in Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and garbage trucks, fire engines and taxis in Need for Speed: Carbon.
Originally the series took place in international settings, such as race tracks in Australia, Europe, and Africa. Beginning with Underground, the series has taken place in fictional metropolitan cities. The first game featured traffic on "head to head" mode, while later games traffic can be toggled on and off, and starting with Underground, traffic is a fixed obstacle. Most of the recent Need for Speed games are set in fictional locations of our world, in a number of different time periods. These include, but are not limited to, Olympic, Bayview, Rockport, Palmont City, Tri-City Bay, Seacrest County, Fairhaven City, Redview County, Ventura Bay, Fortune Valley, Palm City and Lakeshore City.
Games