Sad news for racing fans everywhere: the next Need For Speed game from Criterion will only be available in 2022 (via Polygon). Why? Because EA needs a lot of help from Criterion, the studio behind the new NFS games, with the next Battlefield game.

EA announced that it will be postponing the next Need For Speed game by a year. Criterion will instead be supporting EA DICE on Battlefield 6, which is slated for PS5 and Xbox Series this fall. EA has officially said that neither franchise is in trouble; Criterion is still on the NFS project.

Why the reassigning? According to EA chief studios officer Laura Miele, this is due to pandemic working conditions and the recent Codemasters acquisition, which has promised one racing game for EA by the end of this year.

“[Battlefield] is shaping up great, the team has been working incredibly hard, they pushed hard last year, and yes, we have been working from home. And it’s hard; it’s hard to make games from home, and the [EA DICE] team is fatigued a bit. We have a great game and some incredible potential with this game. We’re playing to win; we’re playing to put a great Battlefield game out in the market.”

There’s more detail concerning the future of EA on the interview; you can read it here.