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EA readying Need for Speed threesome

Q&A: Publisher trifurcating its street-racing franchise into trio of new properties: the MMOG NFS World Online, the Nintendo-only NFS: Nitro, and NFS: Shift for the PS3, 360, PSP, and PC.

Given the upheaval surrounding Black Box, many gamers have been pondering the fate of the Electronic Arts' subsidiary's signature series. Today, EA announced that one of the partially shuttered Canadian operation's franchises, Need for Speed, will continue to be developed.

Need for Speed: Shift

Indeed, not only will the street-racing series carry on, it will be expanded and split into three different franchises. The first, Need for Speed: Shift, is a hardcore racing simulation in the works for the PC, PSP, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. It is being developed by a hybrid team of internal and external developers in the UK, including Black Box executive producer Michael Mann and EA Games Europe senior vice president--and Digital Illusions CE cofounder--Patrick Soderlund. The outside help comes from Slightly Mad Studios, which was cofounded earlier this month by former GT Legends developer Ian Bell.

The second NFS franchise to rise from Black Box's ashes is Need for Speed Nitro (working title), an arcade racer being crafted by the Boogie-makers at EA Montreal. Set for release exclusively on Nintendo's Wii and DS, the game will sport a "unique visual style" and, like Need for Speed Shift, will sport many real-world automotive licenses. Also like Shift, it will ship in North American this fall.

Finally, six years after EA shut down its first car-based massively multiplayer game, Motor City Online, the publisher is backing the auto MMOG genre out of the garage again. Jointly developed by Black Box and EA Shanghai, Need for Speed World Online is a PC-only, free-to-play game set to launch in Asia this coming summer. A North American release is scheduled for "winter 2009," which could potentially mean an early 2010 release.

With NFS being challenged for racing gamers' dollars by Microsoft's Forza Motorsport, Take-Two's Midnight Club, and EA's own Burnout series, why did the publisher decide to mix up its winning formula so drastically? Keith Munro, Electronic Arts' vice president of marketing, laid down some informational rubber with GameSpot in an exclusive interview.