New Burnout, Skate on the way
EA Games president reveals "extension" of driving and skateboarding series in next fiscal year, commits long-term to Mass Effect and says next Need for Speed will return to series' roots.
Electronic Arts' open-world racing game Burnout Paradise still has that new-car smell, and the broken bones of Skate have barely had time to knit, but the publisher is already looking ahead to the next installments in those franchises.
In a presentation to industry analysts today, EA Games president Frank Gibeau revealed that the two series would "see extension" in the publisher's fiscal year 2009, which runs from this April through March of 2009. Gibeau didn't specify whether the extensions would come in the form of proper sequels, side products (such as Burnout Legends and Burnout Dominator), or some other form.
In contrast to Burnout, Skate is a relatively new property. The series debuted last September as part of EA's attempt to break Activision's hold on the skateboarding genre with longtime champ Tony Hawk's Pro Skater.
"Tony Hawk has been the Madden of that category for a very long time, and our performance in this first year of skateboarding has greatly exceeded my expectations," Gibeau told investors. "I know they're going to come back and be competitive, but these are the fights that EA knows how to win."
Through December, the industry-tracking NPD Group reports that Tony Hawk's Proving Ground outsold Skate when all versions are taken into account. However, EA's new franchise was released on only two platforms compared to Tony Hawk's five, and the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of Skate both bested their same-system counterparts in sales. EA's success in establishing the Skate franchise appears to have spurred Activision to action; the Tony Hawk publisher told investors last week that it would be reengineering its flagship skating franchise, giving the brand a new direction.
Another new franchise EA is prepping a sequel for is Mass Effect, which was announced for the PC today. From the very first time now EA-owned developer BioWare showed it off in 2005, the role-playing game franchise was touted as a trilogy. Gibeau's presentation today suggested it may not end there. He told analysts that it "will be a franchise for [EA] for a very long time." He also said that going forward, EA will take over publishing duties on the Mass Effect franchise from Microsoft Game Studios, which handled the game's initial release on the Xbox 360.
Gibeau also mentioned the next installment in another of EA's racing franchises, Need for Speed. While a new Need for Speed in development isn't surprising (the franchise has been annualized since 2002's Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2), Gibeau did give the analysts an early look at the direction EA would be taking with the next installment of the series.
Noting that sales of last year's Need for Speed ProStreet didn't live up to EA's hopes for the game, Gibeau said he thinks it was because the series drifted too far from what consumers expected. ProStreet had dropped the tuner culture and police evasion aspects of previous installments in favor of perfectly legit closed track racing. For the next Need for Speed, Gibeau promised that the series would be getting back to its roots with a number of features, including open-world racing and a new highway battle mode.
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276 Comments
Need for speed Is back but hopefully it will be better.
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I want Underground 3 !!!!!
With all the Neon,hydrolics,sound systems,Cops and Free roam.
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does anyone know how to unlock all the new cars from the update like the gallardo, lancia delta and db9, etc. they have screenshots^^^^^ but i dont know how to get them
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im glad nfs is going back to its roots, i wish skate would just come out with like some addons of awesome skate parks that would be added to the side of the map instead of already starting a new. I mean no one has really explored all of skate yet.l I know ive only been on 6 freeways and i think there is many more. sk8 on...
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i cant wait for the next nfs game!!!!!
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ProStreet was better than Carbon but not by much. How about going back to versions like Hot Pursuit 2 or Most Wanted. The game itself and the car lineup was better.
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who in the fuk want open road racing??? for God sakes EA go back to track racing
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i hated pro street and i'm glad they're going back to the most-wanted style!!!! pro street was simply put....tooo boring(to me at least).
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NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, I actually thought they did the best they have ever done on NFS Prostreet, and I liked it because I am not good at most professional raing simulators. Also, I loved the car line-up and new modes this year.
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I hope they don't screw up the hardware requirements and optimize it a lot better than ProStreet. I simply HATED this game.
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to hamza20 with everything you just listed, that alot to cram into a single game as add ons or improvments ( yes i know its a seperate game from other NFS) are you sure you dont want the game to suck you off also?
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EA needs to bring in the cops with more spice, like carbon, but a bit extra, lots of damage, better graphics than prostreet, we'll need the helicopters with more potential, much better autosculpt and tuning, also a day/night option, and even civilians would be good, more varieties of police cars, more police strategies, and lots more spicing up to the career modes, more race types, more tracks, not only roads and canyons, more stuff like off-road tracks, and it must be set in open world. Will need a sexy woman as the cover girl, and throughout the game to give us erections all night long.lots of improvements, then EA would hit the market real hard, thats what we're looking for, so take a good hard look at what we want. make it perfectly, don't always leave something out. If EA does what I've mentioned, the I reckon EA will please most, if not all. Make it perfect EA, just don't stuff it up!
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EA really needs to get back to police for NFS. Hope the next one turns out good. For their covergirl, they'll need Paris Hilton, or someone like that, lying topless on the car( and pantless)!!! Bikinis nice, but if shes naked even better. Coz she's one hot celebrity, who I want in my bedroom. oh babe!!!
LOL!!!
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I hope EA do go back to the roots with NFS, the real roots of the game, dropping the tuner stuff and all this 'street/urban' crap, going back to the sports cars and supercars of NFS from the original up to Hot Pursuit 2 (yes, I have played them all). Perhaps another Porsche Challenge type game?
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most wanted is the best nfs game now, and by the way ea's goin, in 10 yrs, it will STILL be the best nfs game. ea is goin downhill now and it may not get back up to the top.
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i want ea to make a better nfs.a most wanted 2 would be awesome,but please don't make another nfs game like prostreet.it sux
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man i cant wait for the new skate...burnout paradise is a sick game as well
but skate is the best game out there for skateboardign fo sho..tony hawk sucks now
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they fuked it up with nfs pro street
i traded my a & c future for that game and i made a huge mistake
i sold it right away and had fun with 2 races
nfs was the 2nd best next to midnight club which is coming out this summer
burnout replaced nfs's place in racing games
cmon ea
wat were u thinking
thats y we have gt5 prologue
the best nfs for me was underground 1 and then mw and then underground 2
but that was it
they make a new nfs every fall so they better get back to nighttime racing and all the street style
and nfs pro street soundtrack suks
i need rap musik wen i race
nfs underground had a couple good ones
but take notes from midnight club
its way fukin better
i love that rap musik while racing
if anyone has a ps3 add me
PSN: H_A_R_K
tell me if u know any news about ps3 and all the glitches in cod4
and is rainbow 6 vegas worth playing?
i got graw 2 and it sucked
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Let's just be happy they realized their mistake with ProStreet and they develop another game based on Most Wanted!
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EA sux.
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ea rox
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i agree wit "subzero_sv " said in his comment ya should read it.......... that nfs would be a dream to play hopefully "EA" is reading our cries............
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i considered prostreet as the most boring game of the year.it feels so good now that ea is going to make another cool street racing game.and its so cool that ea is taking mass effect to pc.3 cheers for ea.
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totally awesome
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yeah please "most wanted 2" or something. that was the best.
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Please EA... Please... Just make another good NFS like Most Wanted =)
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I hope New Need for Speed can has Free Room .
it has free room I want to play .
the NFSPS is Very Suck!!!
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I just hope EA is REALLY going to go back to the original roots of NFS. I'm suggesting Electronic Arts should remake the original Need For Speed in 1995.
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Pro Street had dropped the tuner culture and police evasion aspects of previous installments in favor of perfectly legit closed track racing.
This made for some fun racing but not what I was looking for in the Pro street game. I'm glad they're going back to the roots, but they could've made it free roam and had the cops chases in this game as well and it would've made an even better game if you can see how to take a corner while the cops are on ya tail!
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i did like the fact in most wanted that you could use anycar till the end. Just Please Let us use The New Camaro actually in the game... pissed me off only being able to drive in quick race....
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EA needs to put custom soundtracks and replays in their racing games and be chastised when they don't, that's what EA needs to do.
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OMG EA need to go back at NFS Hot Pursuit, high stakes and porshe unleashed... please EA let us drive with nfs 3 handling, let us drive in a open world and at least "world tracks" like in nfs high stakes and need for speed 2 special edition, give us a little bit of tuning like Underground 1, and give us a lot of cops like in most wanted + nfs HP2 and nfs3, give us that helicopter chases again, give us very nice graphics (nfs PU, nfs hp2, nfs u1 and MW), Please EA dont let us down this 2k8 Xmas, we need the REAL need for speed again, we need that adrenaline from nfs 3, and the ARCADE STYLE from nfs2, tracks BASED ON TOWNS like nfs2, nfs3 and nfs5. please EA please even a remake of NFS hot pursuit or high stakes 2 could be a MEGA GREAT GAME, we need FUN!
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unfortunately EA look like they are headed to most wanted 2 type game "open world and highway battle" here we go again with another crappy nfs game. thats NOT!!! going back to its roots
i personally hope not. high stakes2 or hot pursuit3 is most welcome
now thats going back to its roots "FUN" racing!!!!!
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No more tuner garbage!!!! It is utter blasphemy when speaking of the roots of NFS if you're not referring to Hot Pursuit 2 or High Stakes style racing!!! Get it RIGHT
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man this is going to be great ea's already working on sequels for skate and burnout less waiting time ....... yes
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i cant wait for skate 2
this is amazing
no more boney hawk domination
skate is way sicker anyway!
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highway battle mode??? dun no about that. cant seem to over look the rhino suv cop cars if EA use them in it. it would be mighty difficult to pass them on the highway with rails food for thought imo
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The NFS part certainly caught my attention. ProStreet sucked, they know it, and they're going to try to appeal to the fans this time. Hmm...highway battle mode? Sounds intriguing.
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thanks god EA recognise their stupidness because we all know track racing is BORING!!!
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Concerning Need For Speed, Although Pro Street was just an ok game, It got boring pretty quickly and lost interest in even finishing it. The various cars and road tracks were cool and good to see again besides the last four past games in the City only,But it was mostly missing the open world that we came to really like in Underground 2 and missed the great Supercars like the F1 McLaren and Mercedes CLK GTR and of course Ferrari and that awesome Island in HP2.
Now they need to figure out how to combine the two and have both night and day racing like they had in even earlier NFS games like Porsche Unleashed.
But Highway battle mode sounds really cool as long as they don't have Super Rhino SUV cop cars ramming head on into you!
Oh and please leave annoying announcers & Ryan Cooper out please! UGH!
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the next NFS should deffinetly go back to being just like the fast and the furious, the last couple really havent had the feeling of speed, maybe thats why they are said to need it.
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BOO YA, new SKATE game!!!
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i hope its better then most wanted and carbon. they were both pretty good but could still use some work. it will probably be good though.
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it better be better than prostreets and carbon and most wanted
they all sucked imo... hope it have chanllenge roads like in high stakes and exotic cars like in hotpursuit2 call it hotpursuit3: extreme stakes
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looks like the racings illegal again, and thats what NFS does best. I'm looking foward to it if it's better than Prostreet and Carbon
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I really hope this new nfs game have a touch of hotpursuit2, underground2 far as highway battle concern. drag racing like in underground. open road racing like high stakes and plenty of COPS!!
and short cuts like in hotpursuit2
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does this mean that mass effect is more likely to come to the PS3 now?
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LOL a game EA knows how to win ... ya just keep downing millions into the advertising on TV etc and you can sell even the most absolute garbage ... prostreet shows that example perfectly.
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With regard to Need for Speed, it's no surprise that the series drifted from its roots. It's not easy to come up with new, creative ideas when you're releasing a new game every year. I mean, this isn't a game-type that is constrained by NFL or Nascar rules.
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Sweet, new skate, new burnout. the only thing that sucks is that theres gonna be a new Mass Effect, i hated that game. to much talking. and if they get this NFS right then thatll be great too. over all good news here.
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