Need for Speed will return, EA pledges, but team all-in on Battlefield for nowSmall group had previously been working on racing series' future.Image credit: EA News by Tom Phillips Editor-in-Chief Published on Feb. 3, 2025 Need for Speed and Burnout developer Criterion is now entirely focused on developing EA's next Battlefield game, the publisher has told Eurogamer - but there are still plans for the studio to return to its racing roots at some point in the future.Back in September 2023, EA announced that the "majority" of Criterion would move over to support development on the next Battlefield game, while a smaller "core group" within the British studio continued on with Need for Speed.At the time, Battlefield boss Vince Zampella said Criterion's Need for Speed team would continue work to "shape what's next for the franchise".Next Battlefield game: Battlefield Labs launched.Watch on YouTubeIn the 18 months since, we've since seen additional content arrive for 2022's Need for Speed Unbound - the series' latest and last launch to date, but no word on what's next after that. "Surprise! We're still here," developer Criterion Games wrote in a blog post in February 2024, when it celebrated Need for Speed's 30th anniversary with the announcement that Unbound would be supported until the end of the year.Today, it sounds like what's next for Need for Speed is still some way off - even if there's a commitment to the series long-term."The Need for Speed team at Criterion are joining their colleagues working on Battlefield," Zampella said in a statement to Eurogamer today. "As a company, it was important to us to take the last year to listen to our Need for Speed community and use their feedback to create content for Unbound. "With an increased understanding of what our players want in a Need for Speed experience, we plan to bring the franchise back in new and interesting ways."Once an annual stalwart of EA's release schedule, the Need for Speed series now looks set for an extended break, with no new game seemingly in active development. With no new title waiting in the wings for 2025, Need for Speed will be paused for the longest time between releases since the series first began, all the way back in 1994.Criterion is currently one of four EA developers working under the umbrella of Battlefield Studios to reignite the publisher's first-person shooter franchise. As of today, fans can sign up to a large-scale test of the next Battlefield game.