Thursday, February 22nd 2024
EA Celebrates "Need for Speed" 30th Anniversary with Y2 "NFS: Unbound" Roadmap
Surprise! We're still here, and not just here - we have a whole year's worth of content coming to you! NFS turns 30 this year, and with that huge legacy, we couldn't stand idle. However, this year will be a bit different from the previous one. Because here's the thing—the NFS legacy signifies different things to each and every one of you. Some of you were there at the start of it all on Road and Track. Some of you will remember taking on the Eastsiders in Olympic City or smashing your way through the Blacklist in Rockport. Or you might have started playing more recently. Hustling by day and risking it all by night in Palm City. No matter your memory, we all have a shared love of NFS, and we want to build new memories over the next 12 months.
But, we'll be honest and admit we can't build everything everyone wants right now, but we can decide together what NFS should be in the future. Our vision is that through our second year of live service, you can, for the first time, begin to play the ultimate NFS experience in one place. Your feedback and gameplay will help shape the future of this iconic franchise. As you play, we will be listening, observing and reacting to the things you want to see and those you don't. It's an approach that we're calling Kaizen.Kaizen is a Japanese term that means change for better or continuous improvement. We feel this really encapsulates what we want to do with NFS, and we want to make you, our players and fans, a key part of it too. So how are we doing this?:
Evolving Volumes
We're committing to adding four new volumes of content in the next year, each launching every few months. We aim to deliver some exciting themed updates, with at least one new major mode added to each volume. We will also continue to build on and evolve with each time. Adding more events, more challenges, new content, Ranks to earn, and new progression to chase. We will deliver at least two new fully customizable cars as part of the Speed Pass. And when we say cars, we mean cars in the NFS sense, like no one else creates. We aren't just talking base models here and stock paint there; we are talking cars that come with fully customizable body kits with a myriad of interchangeable parts so you can tweak your ride just the way you want it.
Most Requested Bug Fixes and Improvements
We really want to be fixing and focusing on the things that you all care about most (like adding realistic driving effects last December), but as a small team, we need to prioritize where we spend our time, and it will always focus on what we feel is best for you all. Every improvement we try to make is a trade-off between something new and something different. So we'll be closely monitoring your comments and feedback and coming to you with regular communications about what we're learning along the way.
Premium Speed Pass
Starting with Volume 6, we are introducing an all-new premium track to the Speed Pass that will grant you instant access to one of our hot new vehicles and unlock the ability to earn all its deep customisation content. It also includes custom versions of the vehicle, and it's where you can find our hottest new customisation options each season. Refining our Speed Pass this way is how we can keep delivering unique new content and gameplay to you through a more simplified approach. If that's not your thing, though, we will still be offering a free track of the Speed Pass with new vehicles and customizations for you to enjoy.
Always Be Learning
We see this as a year to test and learn and understand what works best for you. Committing to an extended Unbound live service allows us to really build on feedback, which we'll be gathering in a few ways. We're working closely with a dedicated Player Council - a great bunch of NFS influencers, core community members, and players to understand what's important to them and their communities. We'll be increasing the amount of telemetry we track from the games to better understand through gameplay data what's working for you. And we'll look to close the feedback loop by being as transparent as possible with you, letting you know what we've heard and what we can and can't do.
Ok, you made it! Closing time. We hope more than ever that all fans of NFS can come join us as we continue to deliver updates to NFS Unbound. We might just have some nice surprises along the way as we take a tongue-in-cheek look back in the rearview before we drop a gear and power forward into the future together, testing, refining and constantly improving along the way!
This announcement may change as we listen to community feedback and continue developing and evolving our Live Service & Content. We will always strive to keep our community as informed as possible. For more information, please refer to EA's Online Service Updates at www.ea.com/service-updates.
But, we'll be honest and admit we can't build everything everyone wants right now, but we can decide together what NFS should be in the future. Our vision is that through our second year of live service, you can, for the first time, begin to play the ultimate NFS experience in one place. Your feedback and gameplay will help shape the future of this iconic franchise. As you play, we will be listening, observing and reacting to the things you want to see and those you don't. It's an approach that we're calling Kaizen.Kaizen is a Japanese term that means change for better or continuous improvement. We feel this really encapsulates what we want to do with NFS, and we want to make you, our players and fans, a key part of it too. So how are we doing this?:
Evolving Volumes
We're committing to adding four new volumes of content in the next year, each launching every few months. We aim to deliver some exciting themed updates, with at least one new major mode added to each volume. We will also continue to build on and evolve with each time. Adding more events, more challenges, new content, Ranks to earn, and new progression to chase. We will deliver at least two new fully customizable cars as part of the Speed Pass. And when we say cars, we mean cars in the NFS sense, like no one else creates. We aren't just talking base models here and stock paint there; we are talking cars that come with fully customizable body kits with a myriad of interchangeable parts so you can tweak your ride just the way you want it.
Most Requested Bug Fixes and Improvements
We really want to be fixing and focusing on the things that you all care about most (like adding realistic driving effects last December), but as a small team, we need to prioritize where we spend our time, and it will always focus on what we feel is best for you all. Every improvement we try to make is a trade-off between something new and something different. So we'll be closely monitoring your comments and feedback and coming to you with regular communications about what we're learning along the way.
Premium Speed Pass
Starting with Volume 6, we are introducing an all-new premium track to the Speed Pass that will grant you instant access to one of our hot new vehicles and unlock the ability to earn all its deep customisation content. It also includes custom versions of the vehicle, and it's where you can find our hottest new customisation options each season. Refining our Speed Pass this way is how we can keep delivering unique new content and gameplay to you through a more simplified approach. If that's not your thing, though, we will still be offering a free track of the Speed Pass with new vehicles and customizations for you to enjoy.
Always Be Learning
We see this as a year to test and learn and understand what works best for you. Committing to an extended Unbound live service allows us to really build on feedback, which we'll be gathering in a few ways. We're working closely with a dedicated Player Council - a great bunch of NFS influencers, core community members, and players to understand what's important to them and their communities. We'll be increasing the amount of telemetry we track from the games to better understand through gameplay data what's working for you. And we'll look to close the feedback loop by being as transparent as possible with you, letting you know what we've heard and what we can and can't do.
Ok, you made it! Closing time. We hope more than ever that all fans of NFS can come join us as we continue to deliver updates to NFS Unbound. We might just have some nice surprises along the way as we take a tongue-in-cheek look back in the rearview before we drop a gear and power forward into the future together, testing, refining and constantly improving along the way!
This announcement may change as we listen to community feedback and continue developing and evolving our Live Service & Content. We will always strive to keep our community as informed as possible. For more information, please refer to EA's Online Service Updates at www.ea.com/service-updates.