Need For Speed PC Version Delayed Until Spring 2016

The latest Need for Speed game merges the single player and online aspects into a constantly-evolving, social experience, but this requires an always-online connection to EA’s servers. Therefore, it’s perfectly plausible for the game to be rendered useless in a few years time when EA switches off the servers. As a result, consumers have a skeptical attitude towards this particular title and worried about the always-online DRM. Furthermore, the developer, Ghost Games has just announced in a post that the PC version will be delayed until 2016. The company said in a statement:

“At Ghost, we’re united by one common passion… to deliver the best Need for Speed™ experience possible. And at every step of the development process we’re guided by our community. Whether that’s reading your comments on Facebook or Twitter, watching your videos on YouTube, or joining in with the discussion on Reddit, the conversation we’ve been having as fans of Need for Speed is enormously important and we’re working to reflect it in the game we’re building.”

“Part of the conversation includes hearing from our PC community that an unlocked frame rate in Need for Speed is a massive priority for you, and we fully agree. To deliver this, we’ve made the decision to move the PC release date to Spring 2016. Our PlayStation 4 and Xbox One release dates will remain the same, starting November 3, 2015 in North America and November 5 worldwide.”

“This decision on PC gives us the necessary development time to increase the visuals that we can deliver on PC. We will also include content updates that will have been released on console up to that time, making them available to all PC players from day one.”

This is a significant delay for the PC platform and bound to disappointment racing fans. Although, if the extended period is used to optimize the game properly, or significantly enhance the visuals, then it might be worth the wait. Ideally, I’d like to see an offline single-player mode included to evoke a sense of confidence in the game’s future.