Shifting Gears Into the Future with Criterion and Need for Speed™

To the Need for Speed Community –

Hello, Matt Webster here, General Manager of Criterion Games. First, I wanted to let you all know how excited our team here in Guildford is to be back in the driver’s seat of development for Need for Speed. As you'll know we have real history with racing and with Need for Speed. We're focused on bringing Criterion's unique point of view, unparalleled game feel, and high quality innovations that will chart a new future for this wonderful series of games.

I also wanted to share with you a glimpse of the road ahead, with our first checkpoint approaching quickly. The team has been hard at work to deliver an exciting feature to Need for Speed Heat, which will be in players’ hands tomorrow!

At Criterion, we've always believed that games are better with friends. We don’t want your platform of choice to be a barrier for that experience. So we're thrilled to let you all know that on June 9, Need for Speed Heat will be the first EA title to offer cross-play, meaning that players – regardless of their platform – can jump into Palm City together as one, united community.

Once you’ve installed the update (see full update notes here, including some other fixes, too), you can opt in to race players across PC, PlayStation®4, and Xbox One. You can search for your friends who are playing on any of the above systems, given they’ve opted in for cross-play as well, inside the Find Players menu. Then, go to the new EA Friends tab in the Party Menu to see who’s online to play with.

As we at Criterion shift gears into the future with full focus on developing the next Need for Speed game, this will be the final update for Need for Speed Heat. Since the launch of Need for Speed Heat and as players continue to tear it up in Palm City, we’re listening to what you love about this experience, and what you all believe could be even better. With these insights, we have a terrific foundation to create the most expressive, most socially connected, action-packed game yet for Need for Speed fans and beyond.

As more players join the global Need for Speed community, we also want to provide more options in how the series can be discovered. On June 16, Need for Speed Heat drops into the EA Access and Origin Access Basic Vault*, giving all subscribers the opportunity to enter Palm City.

Another step to connect our players and games on more platforms is the recent release of Need for Speed Heat on Steam, alongside 2016's Need for Speed and Need for Speed Rivals. Keep an eye out at EA PLAY Live on June 18 for more Need for Speed and Steam announcements. Cross-play will work across PC via Origin and Steam, PS4, Xbox One, and subscribers.

You'll know from our past history that we want to bring players together however we can. With this announcement and what we're working on for the future, we're focused on uniting the wider Need for Speed community – so that you can play, race and compete with all of your friends.

We can’t wait to share more details about Need for Speed down the road. Until then, stay safe, and play together!

Matt

To keep yourself up to date, keep an eye on the official Need for Speed channels and https://www.ea.com/service-updates.

CONDITIONS, LIMITATIONS AND EXCLUSIONS APPLY. SEE ea.com/ea-access/terms AND origin.com/store/origin-access/terms FOR DETAILS.

This announcement may change as we listen to community feedback and continue developing and evolving our Live Service & Content. We will always strive to keep our community as informed as possible. For more information, please refer to EA’s Online Service Updates at https://www.ea.com/service-updates.