Need for Speed Racing Games

Hey, Thanks for clearing this up a little! Now lamen speaking people can understand this too - instead of rambling on about how much they hate EA for being ga... ok.

Anyway, trust the oke above my post to only pick up on the "Shift 2" part of what you said in the Ferrari DLC thread.

Cooler beans

Any links to those 'rumblings', Sil? Are they what you might call 'reliable sources', or do you think they are simply confusing NFS World with Shift2? Seems awfully close to the release of Shift to be putting out a sequel, don't you think..?

Not for EA.

A while back in the EA quarterly reports there was mention of a 2011-q1 NFS title that wasn't going to be world or the criterion game, and people have decided that this is Shift 2.

Maybe it's the Hot Pursuit3 everyone's clamoring for a LOT more than they are clamoring for a Shift2?

That would be sweet... Shift's graphics and physics, but back to NFS's roots. Finally, a REASON for the AI to slam into you! Open courses, Be the Cop, everything that made NFS HP2 such a good game...

I mean, what else could EA DO to Shift other than more courses and more cars? And they can sell those quite profitably as DLC without the hassle of coding a whole new game (which I hope they continue to do, despite the PC haters).

They'd get MY money in a flash for that, whereas a slight rework of Shift is a tough call...

@Destinkeys

The source of the Shift 2 rumour (actually he said another simulation like game), that the Criterion project will be something like a Hot Pursuit, and that neither of these will be World was EA's COO. I don't quite recall his name because frankly I don't care what it is. The comments about the series were lumped in with announcements for other games. The schedule of when the games was released was both announced by EA's Extranet (get it? extra! extra!) and EA's COO.

Have these people been basically reliable in the past? I guess what I mean is, when Shift was at the 'rumor' stage or early EA announcements were being made, did those actually turn out to be pretty much on the mark time and feature-wise, or should we factor in the usual hype that accompanies much corporate flack these days?

What do YOU envision as likely additions to make a Shift 2 title? Weather? Tire wear? More sim-like physics? Better coping with deliberate ramming attacks? Refueling stops on longer races? A deliberate attempt to appeal to the GT5 crowd, or more of the same arcade approach?

Or just more tracks and cars, and that's pretty much it..?

It just seems like a pretty short development cycle to bring out anything radically different to Shift 1, and if DLC is so profitable (I mean, 20% of the game's initial cost for FAR less than 20% more content), why not continue to simply develop more of that?

Interested in hearing your slant on this...

http://www.totalvideogames.com/Need-for-Speed-2011-Unannounced/news/EA-Reveals-New-Need-For-Speed-Titles-UPDATE-14969.html, the company has two unannounced Need For Speed titles slated for release during its next fiscal year, one of which will arrive in the autumn while the other is down for launch during the first three months of 2011.

[...]

Update: EA's COO, John Schappert has said that the Q3 NFS title is, "a new action based Need for Speed from our Criterion Studio," in a post-financial report conference call. He went on to comment that the Q4 title is, "another big driving simulation from Need for Speed".

This flies in the face of our previously hazarded guess, positioning the Criterion project as an all-formats release, while the Q4 "driving simulation" obviously won't be another casual game in the vein of NFS: Nitro. In fact, it sounds very much like it will be a successor to Slightly Mad Studios' NFS Shift, which was released last year. Whether the same studio will be involved in this sim remains unclear at this time.

cem_ea_id.UberSil wrote:Some would say that they failed on this issue but frankly the game was also released a month early due to loud and massive clambering from players.

Nonsense. They released on time, just in time, where "on time" meant so that the game would be out before Forza 3 was.

They said nothing about "quality" instead of "dlc" in the months prior to release, nor in the months following release.
This was just a lie made up after the fact to address complaints about the lack of support and DLC for their game.

It's not even a good lie because the quality of the released product was dire on all 3 platforms. Absolutely dire. If they really cared about quality they would have released another PC patch, at the very least, even if that didn't have the Feb or March DLC in it.

Now, there currently is rumblings that Shift 2 will be released in the first quarter of EA's financial year. And if we're all really, really, really, lucky

Well, I hope SMS don't waste too much of the money they made with Shift on a new title, because I won't pay for another EA or SMS title on whatever platform they release it on. There are better developers, writing better games, with better long term support and DLC to spend my money on.

Given the fact that halfwits like yourself will clearly buy any rubbish EA release with "NFS" on the cover I don't really see any point in EA getting getting SMS to write another sim like game.

What you have to remember is though, that EA got SMS in the first place because the sales they get from the "buy any game with NFS on it" halfwits weren't enough. They don't care a jot that you'll buy the game or what your opinion is because they know you will buy it (indeed in your case they gave you a copy, to them you aren't a customer, you're a cheap fanboy)

It's the people that bought the game who wouldn't touch a crap game or an NFS game with a barge pole that made Shift a success instead of another failure. These are the people that they need to try and keep and sell new titles too. And they've just shafted the vast majority of those, once if not twice (not to mention in EA's case with just about every other title they've released too at some point)

@Yabba

I agree that previous customer retention is important but I also feel that I've taken far more slack then I would have put up with otherwise in return for attempting to defend what is a very good game for most parties involved. I feel that I've worked for the product. However I would have purchased the game and was putting money aside to get it when I finally did in fact get it in the mail. And I will buy the next simulation game from EA as well, thanks to the current game.

@Destinkeys

Extranet has been very reliable in the past. It typically gives straight information and doesn't dwell on opinion and is often slower than other third party media sources to ensure it's own accuracy. I would hope that the COO of EA is another reliable source. After all, the guy is the Chief Operating Officer of the company. We're not talking about some anonymous developer who works on trees and bushes. Not to be confused with Marc.

As for aspects of the game. I have absolutely no clue. The game is an easy nine months away and I'm not an employee of EA so I have the same sources to depend on for information that you have.

cem_ea_id.Destinkeys wrote:

What do YOU envision as likely additions to make a Shift 2 title? Weather? Tire wear? More sim-like physics? Better coping with deliberate ramming attacks? Refueling stops on longer races? A deliberate attempt to appeal to the GT5 crowd, or more of the same arcade approach?

Or just more tracks and cars, and that's pretty much it..?

It just seems like a pretty short development cycle to bring out anything radically different to Shift 1, and if DLC is so profitable (I mean, 20% of the game's initial cost for FAR less than 20% more content), why not continue to simply develop more of that?

Interested in hearing your slant on this...

No no, you're missing the point. The margin on DLC is great and all, but what if you could just patch up all the problems people have been complaining about, throw a couple DLC's worth of additional material in and slap a new title on? Then you can charge 100% of the initial cost for 20% of the originals content. It will be like the yearly roster update, for Madden/MLB/FIFA: a couple new features, maybe some slight graphical tweaks and a new lineup.

EA blew it for me; they promised long-term support for this game, and here we are six months later with four extra cars and a slightly-less glitchy game, only made playable by juls' awesome tire mod. It's a damn shame, as Shift brought me back to a franchise that I hadn't considered since Hot Pursuit II. The game is way more lively and less sterile than some of the more "accurate" sims, and a lot of fun, but if EA can't support their full community, they're going to lose them.

Patching all the problems is likely to be FAR more work than coding a few more cars and a few more tracks...

And anyway, seems like EA are doing a pretty good job patching most of the issues already... let's face it, if some of the more obvious bugs hadn't been addressed, who would have bought Shift2 anyway?

I doubt EA are going to go into the TRUE sim market with GT5's 600 lbs. gorilla about to drop. And without a return to HP2's action arcade style, what really is going to keep the sim crowd around anyway? It's a tough call for EA, while they wait for GT5's shoe to drop...

Well, who knows where they will take the Shift platform? They already managed to smash Forza 3 on their first go by several hundred thousand copies, and that had about double the budget and a system shifting tie-in with MS. They got closer on their first go than any other consolised-sim competitor to GT ever did

I feel something should be quickly clarified here. The largest amount of money spent on making a video game is the graphical aspects. It's universally agreed upon in the industry that graphic quality and game size is so large now that it easily diminishes any other aspect of game creation including modifying current system to work out the kinks.

Personally I feel, and hope, that Shift 2 will include the cars and tracks of Shift. In addition it will include a clean code version of the latest game for each console so that the game will run clean and proper. After these aspects it should also include any DLC, baring the MS allowed Ferrari, that has been released and at least 12 new cars and 3 new compete track systems totaling to 9 new tracks.

Given all that. EA's used to 600 lb gorillas. They'll do just fine.

Well, it's unlikely I'll spend my money on a Shift 2 if it is primarily Shift 1 with a few new cars and tracks. I'd want no tracks or cars in common with what I already have, or I'm paying twice for the same thing. I can see a Shift 1 Megapak with all the new DLC included and new cars and tracks (and paid DLC for Shift 1 users to make them equivalent), to keep the franchise ticking along, but that hardly qualifies as a real 'Shift 2', does it?

I wonder if EA has been eying the Nascar fans? There's the perfect expansion for Shift's physics, and especially the contact aspect of the game...

EA didn't bother renewing their 6 year license on NASCAR (from 2003).