More Info About Need for Speed Unbound's Post-Launch Support Coming in January

Criterion isn't done yet

by Stephen Tailby Mon 19th Dec 2022

Need for Speed Unbound arrived to little fanfare earlier this month. It's a shame, because the PS5 arcade racer is really rather good — probably the best the series has been in a long time. Whether or not you've joined the crew, Criterion Games clearly isn't finished with the stylish street racing title just yet.

In a post on the NFS subreddit, the developer has assured fans that more is on the way. "The teams are gonna take a quick holiday break before getting back to Lakeshore," the statement reads. "We're just getting started and you can expect more info and updates from us towards the end of January."

As for what's in the pipeline for Unbound, we can expect "post-launch content updates and experience packs" in addition to "free access to new modes, social features, and progression for Lakeshore Online". Criterion says the first major update will focus on "expanding social play features", and that future updates will introduce "new modes and features, cars, customization content and more".

So, plenty to look forward to, and we should be hearing more about it in about a month's time. In the meantime, are you enjoying Need for Speed Unbound? Drift into the comments section below.

[source reddit.com, via mp1st.com]

Stephen has been part of the Push Square team for over six years, bringing boundless enthusiasm and a deep knowledge of video games to his role as Assistant Editor. Having grown up playing every PlayStation console to date, he's developed an eclectic taste, with particular passion for indie games, arcade racers, and puzzlers. He's also our go-to guy for Sonic-related matters, much to his delight/chagrin.

1
thefourfoldroot1
Mon 19th Dec 2022

In all honestly, this type of stuff just makes me less likely to buy a game (until it’s finished). Or, if timed events, less likely to buy full stop.

2
Stocksy
Mon 19th Dec 2022

My issue with the last few was that so many features seemed locked to silly timed events and content vanished forever when they pull support.

One of them had a cool “Forza style” barn find type thing that was only during set periods. It was then lost forever.

When it’s been programmed and sorted why not just add permanently when you are going to pull support?

Modern gaming is a bit rubbish for this nonsense.
Beef up a game after release but only for a limited time.

3
nomither6
Mon 19th Dec 2022

“ It's a shame, because the PS5 arcade racer is really rather good”

taking that with a grain of salt , games have been mediocre for a while now and comparing them to their bad predecessors doesnt somehow make the game good to me . gonna keep waiting til weeb for speed gets more updates , goes on sale or free . heat was barely fun for me .

what’s really a shame is this stale franchise has no competition anymore .

4
Smiffy01
Mon 19th Dec 2022

Love the game personally but obviously never sold as much as expected

https://www.purexbox.com/news/2022/12/criterion-loses-five-major-team-members-following-need-for-speed-unbound-launch

5
KundaliniRising333
Mon 19th Dec 2022

Yah I'm guessing the real reason why the 5 criterion veterans left will never be known. I speculate it wasn't based on sales, but likely an internal rift with EA, likely due to it seeming like marketing for this game was intentially non existent, as if it was not given any bit of priority and thus setting it up to fail.

6
Mikey856
Mon 19th Dec 2022

Must admit it’s the first NFS I’ve brought since rivals on ps4 was released. Rather enjoying it too. Soundtrack is great and performance is pretty much spot on.

7
JayJ
Mon 19th Dec 2022

@KundaliniRising333 Uhh the game was pretty heavily marketed.

8
stvevan
Mon 19th Dec 2022

@JayJ where? besides those twitter spat stunts.

saw absolutely 0 marketing in UK

9
JayJ
Mon 19th Dec 2022

@stvevan Uhh I was seeing ads for it all over TV when it was releasing. That and they had a pretty aggressive social media marketing campaign. Heck they even signed on some big rappers and featured one prominently in the game (ASAP Rocky) and had him doing marketing for the game as well. To top it off EA was paying a lot of gaming influencers and streamers to play the game and promote it.

There's a lot of things you could criticize EA for when it comes to this game, but I don't think marketing is one of them.

10
KundaliniRising333
Tue 20th Dec 2022

@JayJ not at all man. We hadn't even hear about this game until a few months ago because a leak. Since then we got like 3 total trailers, 2 of which were extremely short and one of those had almost no gameplay footage of any kind.

Numerous outlets had even commented about how little they had heard of the game, and thus surprising that it was half decent upon release. As usually such limited marketing signals problems or lack of confidence in the finished product.