The last Need For Speed title that Criterion Games worked on was 2013’s Need For Speed Rivals, which was co-developed with Ghost Games. EA has announced that the franchise will be returning to Criterion Games after seven years in the hands of Ghost Games.

Ghost Games is set to change its name to EA Gothenburg again (if approved by the Swedish Union), and it will shift to being an engineering hub to support development across EA’s portfolio. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, EA said:

“The engineering expertise in our Gothenburg team, some of whom are architects of the Frostbite engine, is vital to a number of our ongoing projects, and they would remain in that location.

Outside of the engineers and those that we plan to transfer to other positions, there would be 30 additional staff in Gothenburg, and we would hope to place as many of them as possible into other roles in the company.”

Ghost Games has previously developed three Need for Speed titles in the past seven years: 2013’s Need for Speed: Rivals, the 2015 reboot, 2017’s Need for Speed: Payback and 2019’s Need for Speed: Heat (check out our full review here). Meanwhile, Criterion has spent that same time supporting EA DICE on Star Wars: Battlefront, Star Wars: Battlefront II and Battlefield V.

EA continued:

“With a strong history and passion for racing games and vision for what we can create, the Criterion team is going to take Need for Speed into the next-generation.

Ghost Games have helped to bring some great Need for Speed experiences to our players.

Consistently delivering that at AAA levels means we need teams with diverse skills in locations where we can continually support them and bring in new team members to join.

Despite our best efforts to establish an independent development group in Gothenburg over several years, it’s become clear that the breadth of talent we need to maintain a full AAA studio is just not available to us there.

Criterion can also provide the consistent leadership that we need to continue creating and delivering new Need for Speed experiences for a long time to come.

Criterion is a fantastic studio, and we’re looking forward to adding to their talented team and building a great future for Need for Speed.

The engineering teams in Gothenburg are also vital to our ongoing plans across EA.”