Afew days ago when news surfaced that Slightly Mad Studios’ upcoming sequel to Need for Speed Shift would be named “Unleashed”, several readers wondered if that’s an indication on the direction the title is going.
Now, a very interesting interview with EA’s Patrick Soderlund on the future of the Need for Speed Shift franchise has been released by Eurogamer. Soderlund explains that while other NFS titles will be taking care of the arcade oriented market, Shift will continue to cater to the simulation-oriented players as EA positions the franchise as cross-platform alternative to console driving titles such as Forza Motorsport & Gran Turismo:
“The idea for us is to come out with a holiday product, around Christmas time every year, that is true to the core tenets of an action NFS game, which is usually what most of our consumers are after.
We also think we can compete and ultimately become market-leading in the simulation authentic motorsport segment. One of the strongest points we have is, apart from the fact we have a very talented developer working with us and we now have an established brand underneath the NFS umbrella in that segment, we also have the advantage of being a multi-platform offering.
Forza can only be bought on Xbox and Gran Turismo is only available on PlayStation. We’re the only one right now that is of a significant weight that can offer something up on all those platforms.”
The full interview can be found here, the quote above is the only bit about Shift 2 as the interview mostly focuses on the arcade NFS titles and other EA products.
