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Let's admit it: Need For Speed as an ip isn't in a good place right now. One of its main criticisms is that its games lack focus, but I beg to differ. I think the lack of a particular focus is what gave the franchise its flair.

Need For Speed as a racing game franchise is unique because it isn't bounded by any particular genre or style of racing. It stands out among a sea of racing games because throughout the years, Need for Speed has been the embodiment of innovation in the racing game genre. It's not afraid to change, it's willing to take risks, and that is how Need for Speed has managed to survive nearly 25 years as a franchise. Compare this franchise to other similar titles: Midnight Club, Forza; all these other franchises are good, but they always stuck with the same formula more or less. Need for Speed's ability to reinvent the racing genre with each title is what makes these other racing franchises pale in comparison. Most of this can be credited to Black Box, the true pioneer of the franchise.

Before 2003, Need for Speed games were regarded as just these simple games for kids to pretend to drive their dream supercars. They were good games, but the formula was rigid. Somewhere along the line, Black Box came and realized that Need for Speed is more than just that. Black Box was willing to change the franchise, it took that risk, and the result was the glorious Need For Speed: Underground. Following the foundations set by the Underground formula, Black box has managed to reinvent the racing game genre installment by installment. By the time Need For Speed: Carbon rolled along, the open-world tuner street racing formula (we will now dub this the “underground formula”) had gotten stale, and Black Box knew that. Despite it being a fan-favorite, Carbon was a mess, both as a game and for Black Box to develop. For as ambitious as it was, it certainly didn't live up to the standards set by its predecessors.

Being the innovators that they are, Black Box sought after another direction to take the franchise. With the release of Need For Speed: Prostreet, it showed that Black Box was yet again willing to change, but this time, the community wasn't. Prostreet was met with severe backlash when it came out. It had valid reasons, but most were simply because Prostreet dared to stray away from the underground formula that the community holds so dear. This forced Black Box to shift back to the underground formula with Need for Speed: Undercover, in an attempt to please the community. The game failed to match the quality of its predecessors, even worse so than Carbon.

From this point on, the situation only got worse. Two new studios, particularly Criterion, had been brought on board with both having offered their own ways to shake up the formula, as well as Black Box's own ambitious Need for Speed: The Run. These studios had released titles that may not be as revolutionary as the early Black Box games, but they still bring about a fresh approach to the racing game genre - something the franchise was all about. Despite their best efforts, the community was still unwilling to change. If you were anywhere near the need for speed community from 2010 to 2013, you'd know how vocal they were. They were so bent on getting their Underground 3, that they immediately shot down every single installment that came out in those years just because they didn't have customization and open world as if they're the golden standard. Their unwillingness to accept anything other than Underground 3 or Carbon 2 indirectly caused the downfall of Black Box, as ironic as it is.

After Rivals came out with yet again harsh reception from its community, EA knew they had to step back and think things through - and they did. What resulted from this was the 2015 reboot. This game was a direct response to the outcries of the community for the past 5 years. If there was a game to blatantly show how much game developers can suck the community's dirty cock, this game is the prime example. Ghost games didn't make this game, and it wasn't EA either - it was the community. Customization? Open world? Cops? The game has them all. The whole game is practically the Underground 3 the community has been begging for.

Ghost games (and ultimately EA) has made it clear that they're not letting go of the underground formula anytime soon, because they don't dare to. They are thoroughly convinced that the coummunity would accept anything as long as it has customization, cops and has open world. They are under the impression that those are the magic combinations to make the perfect Need for Speed game, simply because those were the things the community has been crying for all these years. That isn't what the Need for Speed franchise is all about. Black Box knew better than that, and the community should have too. What

was once a proud franchise that dared to challenge itself to revolutionize the racing game genre numerous times, is now a shell of its former self; a franchise at the mercy of its own community; a franchise that will slowly stagnate into irrelevance. With the recent AMA, you might be tempted to blame EA instead, but think hard for a minute. EA doesn't pull these decisions out of thin air. The past few need for speed games have done poorly thanks to bad reception from its community, where do you think EA would base their decisions off of in order to fix that?

Submitted April 29, 2019 at 07:55PM by bamboozle75 http://bit.ly/2ZLxNBk
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