Earlier this month, we learned beloved automotive website Speedhunters had effectively shut down. The website was backed by Electronic Arts and closely linked with the Need For Speed games. With the site dead and no news regarding a new Need for Speed title, it’s now believed that EA may have put the racing franchise series out to pasture.
The Need for Speed first debuted on the Panasonic 3D0 in 1994. The game that launched the franchise was a collaboration between Electronic Arts and automotive magazine Road & Track. It was lauded on release for its realistic graphics and sound, along with its compelling gameplay and roster of desirable supercars. It would soon be ported to the PC, Playstation, and Sega Saturn, even gaining a special edition release with more tracks in 1996.
New Need for Speed games have followed every few years since. However, rumors are swirling that the series may now be dead, thanks to comments from a freelance photographer who used to work with Speedhunters. “Speedhunters is on ice,” Matthew Everingham posted on Instagram. “EA shelved Need For Speed, and that means no more funding for the site.”
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The Speedhunters website was known for telling great automotive stories, paired with top-notch photographic work. The site was also intimately linked with the Need for Speed franchise, though it was seldom discussed nor widely known by the site’s reader base.
“It’s a little-known fact that Need for Speed – specifically its publisher, Electronic Arts – has powered the Speedhunters project since day one, allowing us to bring you all the weird, wacky, and exciting parts of global car culture all year round,” the outlet published in a post last year entitled The Need for Speedhunting. The article highlighted the outlet’s renewed efforts to tell stories behind the scenes of the Need for Speed games, perhaps a hint to the website trying to ensure its continued existence. Ultimately, the site ceased publishing posts in early 2025.
Need for Speed Unbound was the last major release in late 2022.
I spoke to Matthew Everingham regarding the matter, who noted that he worked freelance and was not directly employed by EA or any other gaming studio. “Public knowledge is that EA Games and Need for Speed own Speedhunters,” he explained. “Our stories were used to connect the gaming realm with real life, and to source legit car culture.” He noted that the site’s many contributors have moved on to other platforms, and many hope to collaborate in the future. “Hopefully the site will return in some form in the future but there’s no official (or unofficial) plans that I’m aware of,” he said. “Most of us are doing our own thing on YouTube.”
At this time, no public statement has been provided by EA to confirm or deny whether the series has been shelved. The Autopian has contacted the video game publisher for comment and thus far is yet to hear back.
What we do know is that the Need for Speed series has been tending towards dormant for some time. The last title, Need for Speed Unbound, was released in late 2022. Criterion Games, which developed the title, shifted focus to working on an upcoming Battlefield title some years ago. In February this year, EA announced the game would receive no further updates going forward.
Thank you for rippin' round Lakeshore with us, we'll see you on the streets ????
Here's your look back at NFS Unbound Vol.9 and our year of Kaizen ⏪
???? Read the blog: https://t.co/8SziBDj5V1
— Need for Speed (@NeedforSpeed) February 3, 2025
At the time, EA had stated the franchise would continue. However, since then, we’ve seen Speedhunters mothballed and no other signs of life. Meanwhile, EA has also announced this week that the online service for Need for Speed Rivals will shut down in October.
Big franchises rarely die forever. We may yet see the famous name return to gaming in some future year. Regardless, the situation for Need for Speed currently looks bleak. More as we have it.
Image credits: Electronic Arts
Maybe they can bring it back as “Need For Hypermiling”.
LOL
Need For Speed has long been my favorite car racing video game franchise. Yeah, Gran Turismo has more intricacies, Burnout is hilarious, Forza is massive, and GTA and its similar competition (which have racing elements rather than being focused on racing) are huge and popular. For just being able to jump in and play for hours and hours NFS (at least its more older and/or well-known iterations) is hard to beat.
holy F I am dating myself but I had the 3d0 version. It was LIGHT YEARS ahead of everything else at the time, and man, I put so many hours into it. Later version of that first game got rid of the smarmy guy you were always racing against, known as Xman
Here’s a clip
https://youtu.be/P7V_1sa-RXU?t=115
As for speedhunters… it sucks. I feel like it was the first place that captured ENTHUSIASTS as a whole. They would cover drifting, lowriders, stanced shows, muscle, hot rods, pretty much anything cool, and the photography was always fantastic. The writing… was… well… ignore the writing for the most part, I guess.
But it captured something that I think everywhere else did not: inclusiveness; it didn’t matter what kind of car enthusiast you were, they just seemed to embrace being geeked about any type of automotive culture.
Need for Speed doesn’t even need a new game, just a remaster/remake, in my opinion! Between Heat and Unbound, they did a remaster with the 2010 edition of Hot Pursuit, but I guess it’s sold like lava cakes to Pompeii, because they apparently couldn’t get anyone to do a remaster of the bestselling game in the franchise? Or they’re unwillingly, more likely.
It blows my mind too, because compared to Rockstar, where all of its studios are only ever working on GTA or Red Dead, can get remasters out of older games with massive updates, I can’t understand why EA can’t just do another HP2010 with like MW2005. I can just imagine the sales!
I believe the big barrier is car licensing. Not sure how they were able to pull it off with HP2010 but that’s usually why you don’t see remasters of racing games that have real cars in them
Considering tariffs and the uncertainty, I would like to imagine companies would love a call from EA for some licensing profit, even if it’s small.
Porsche Unleashed on a PS1, Hot Pursuit 2 on a PS2… and the “new” Hot Pursuit on Xbox 1 were the definitive racing games for me. When Forza Horizon came out it seemed great… but where were the cops? Also gave us some GREAT commercial spots over the years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBX2vTMot2U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D5IRprGcCI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZprbtu5t3o
Not to mention the Hot Pursuit 2 intro still slaps
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3yDf8lkGEY
That Most Wanted ad still lives rent-free in my head, and I have no intention of evicting it.
Perfectly captured the “ASBO” nature of the Ford hot hatches of the era, plus seeing a new McLaren (only, not a Mercedes-Benz) for the first time since the F1, the Raptor, the new Ford police vehicles replacing the venerable Crown Victoria Police Interceptor, and so on. Such fun.
NFS Hot Pursuit 2 is fun because of the helicopters that drop nukes LOL
One of my favorite memories was NFS: Porsche Unleashed. Such a good relaxing game. Love that it had tons of teaching in the game, and honestly wish they had gotten license to do that same sort of historical game with other manufacturers.
One of the most underrated games in the franchise. Still one of my favorites.
The problem was at level 1 you could get a 914 and drive circles around all the similarly-classed 356s… not that I was complaining! It was just very easy to win.
I know we live in the digital age, where we can just look up cars online, however I miss when games like Forza or Gran Turismo would have a write-up about each car built into the game. Or Forza 4’s epic “Forzavista” commentaries by Jezza himself.
I maintain that a graphically-remastered bundle of Underground 1 and 2 for modern consoles would absolutely sell like crazy. EA will never do that, though, because they couldn’t turn it into a paid subscription service or something.
Agreed. I’ve enjoyed Forza Horizon, but found Underground infinitely more playable… the festival thing just gets old.
If it does come back, it needs to ditch the Fast & Furious garbage for good, and return to the classic-era formula.
High-end cars from both established & obscure brands with detailed interiors and in-depth showcases, no useless customization gimmicks, no NOS, scenic locales from all over the world, and fast-paced lyricless electronic/rock music.
Get rid of the Burnout physics too and have the game developed by Codemasters instead.
The Underground games are what briefly rejuvenated the NFS series. There are shit tons of titles where you can drive supercars, but Underground was so unique in that it offered customization no other title could touch. Customization is such an integral part of almost every AAA racing title now that an arcade-y racer with no customization whatsoever would be completely dead on arrival.
Underground wasn’t unique by any means. There had already been multiple customization / tuner-focused titles around such as Tokyo Xtreme Racer. They may have been more obscure, but Underground wasn’t breaking new ground. In fact, it threw out everything that made NFS distinct from other AAA racers.
The original NFS games were unique in that they paid a level of care and reverence to its cars comparable to Gran Turismo, with gameplay that was more accessible than sims without being over-the-top like Rush or Cruis’n. The focus of classic-era NFS was on the cars and the gameplay, not useless vanity items.
Every NFS since 2015 has been the same glorified car configurator with crap physics and bland car selections, not to mention the absolutely dreary locales. They keep pushing the customization gimmick and keep forgetting to make a racing game.
If every AAA racer has detailed customization, what exactly is the point of buying a modern NFS over any of its competitors? Why shouldn’t the series go back to the formula that actually put the series on the map, consistently produced excellent titles, and set the franchise apart from all the rest?
Underground was the first game to truly depict US and EU tuner culture – as you said, TXR was more obscure, so for a title as big as NFS to have tuner culture at its center was a massive deal for the time. Customization was very involved, too, and the gameplay had a lot more depth than TXR, which was basically just the same exact highway battles over and over again.
And the focus on Underground was still the cars. Customization does not take anything away from the cars, but it gave you more of a personal connection to your car because you truly got a chance to make it your own. Customization is not a gimmick – if you want to keep your car stock you have that option, but to eliminate the option to customize your car at all would be a massive step backward.
You also answered your own question. There is now no longer any point in buying NFS over its competitors. If they keep releasing the same game it’ll be white noise, if they try to make it more sim-like, which they have done, you’re going to be competing with titles that do the sim thing much better, and if you do a bland arcade racer with no customization options and the routine selection of supercars, it’s going to be totally overlooked. That’s basically what the new Test Drive Unlimited is, and that’s hanging by a thread.
Racing games have changed dramatically, and NFS simply no longer has a place.
The OGs were just a more in-depth foray into the Cruisin’ USA/Cruisin’ World style game.
Imo, the series really hit it’s stride with the Underground series.
The original NFS games were far more sophisticated than you’re suggesting.
Cruis’n was an exceedingly simple point-to-point racer with no real race variety or player progression. It was design for short stints on an arcade cabinet.
NFS High Stakes and Porsche Unleashed had fully fleshed-out quick race and career modes with greater attention to detail in both the cars and driving models.
…So like I said, a more in-depth foray. Exotic cars racing on public roads, but with progression!
Yeah, if you boil it down to basic qualifiers like that and conveniently ignore any nuance, they’ll seem similar.
“Almost all of the games in the NFS series employ the same fundamental rules and similar mechanics: the player controls a race car in a variety of races, the goal being to win the race. In the tournament/career mode, the player must win a series of races in order to unlock vehicles and tracks. Before each race, the player chooses a vehicle and has the option of selecting either an automatic or manual transmission. All games in the series have some form of multiplayer mode allowing players to race one another via a split screen, a LAN or the Internet.”
Hmmmm, sounds a LOT like Cruisin USA/World with career progression.
It wasn’t until they added customization that it really got good.
Hard disagree. The in-depth customization is what sets NFS apart from other racing games, and it’s because of NFS’s customization that almost all the other racing games have at least some level of customization. NFS did, and still does, customization better than almost anyone else. At this point, it’s their bread and butter.
Underground wasn’t even close to being the first to implement customization. And while the current NFS games may have more in-depth customization than other titles, it’s a moot point when the rest of the game is so mediocre.
Respectfully disagree. I played the original Hot Pursuit 2, but Underground and Underground 2 were GAME CHANGERS. I spent countless hours just doing customization specs. That was just as much the appeal as the driving.
That’s what I loved about the modern titles. You got the police chasing from titles like Most Wanted and Hot Pursuit, you get the customization from Underground, and the free roam in pretty locals like contemporary games.
Even within the NFS series, Underground wasn’t the first to do detailed upgrades and customization.
The biggest issue with the Ghost NFS games, physics and handling aside, is that they try to appeal to different distinct NFS eras simultaneously. There’s no focus, and the games appear indistinct as a result.
I think there’s a cloud outside that needs yelling at.
Underground isn’t even that much newer than the Hot Pursuit games. It just happens to suck.
Codemasters physics + beamNG destruction 🙂
I’d settle for BugBear physics. Wreckfest is excellent.
Well dang. I grew up playing NFS instead of GT or Forza (Nintendo family). I loved dind’t mind the more arcade-like controls vs a GT sim style. Need for Speed 2015 was the last game I beat 100% but I followed youtubers doing play throughs of Heat and Unbound. I still have screenshots from cars I made in the mobile NFS Heat configurator.
I hope it comes back by the time my boys are old enough for video games. Crossing my fingers.
TBH, I don’t think I’ve ever been to Speedhunters (I’ve always been a TTAC and Jalop loyalist, and now Autopian) so a lot of places like DriveTribe and Autoblog have been mostly foreign to me.
Side story, but for a brief while in the early 90s, EA coined “EASN” for all of their sports franchises. They even sent out merch packs — bumper stickers, hats, shirts, etc. I had one! Within a year, they were sued out of existence by ESPN for being too close to the same name, even though looking back on it, I would have called it Fair Use and ESPN’s shortsightedness (being relatively new) didn’t see that it would enhance their own brand. EASN wasn’t a TV station, it was just the overarching sub-brand for Madden, MLB, and the rest.
I wish I had kept all of that stuff, it would be worth hundreds of nickels on ebay today!
Racing games in general seem to be trending down. Forza is getting massive cuts, NFS on hiatus. I think things are shifting towards either full arcade stuff (I.e. rocket league) or full sim stuff for the hardcore racing nerds (like many of us here, haha).
We need to bring back two automotive gaming icons:
-Crazy Taxi
-Twisted Metal
Midnight Club too… cmon rockstar. Used to love that game on my 360.
I have more hours than I’m proud of, dumped into Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition.
How quickly Burnout has been forgotten. It was all downhill after Takedown.
Oh man, Takedown was a masterpiece. I must have over 150 hours on my PS2 copy. It’s a crime that it never got remastered when Revenge did.
Wreckfest is a pretty fun arcade racing game. I play GT7 most days, but sometimes I just want to cause some destruction.
This makes me really sad. Not only did Speedhunters shape an entire generation of car culture, but it now also seems like all the racing games are going away, too.
Forza Motorsport might be going away too (that still hasn’t been confirmed, last I checked), but it hasn’t been getting any updates, and it used to get them weekly. Forza Motorsport was panned when it first came out, but they made significant changes since then, and it turned into a pretty damn good racing game since then. Over the last year, they added a lot of new cars and great tracks.
I’m sad to see it go but it’s no surprise. So many major automotive media titans have been closing shop or “refocusing”