On March 30, 2009 at 19:43, EA informed Eurogamer that it was announcing the closure of the Need for Speed game series. No comments came directly from EA, but comments from some EA employees were found.
First is producer Scott Henshaw, who had once given an interview (read). Here is what he says: "Despite the fact that we were going to release NFS: Shift and NFS: WO, a poll among users of many NFS sites and forums (including nfs.place - ODI) showed that gamers no longer expect anything new from the series. The topic has been fully explored, nothing new can be invented (as NFS: Undercover clearly demonstrates - ODI). The NFS series has run its course". "We are putting all WO and Shift developments on hold until better times" - Henshaw added after a painful pause.
Second is Jan Bell, head of Slightly Mad Studios, which is developing Need For Speed Shift. He confirmed that on March 30 at 14:36 an order came from above to stop all work on Need for Speed Shift. He comments on this himself: "I was not surprised by this order; on the contrary, the whole team had been waiting for it. There was a smell of it in the air - you know, that atmosphere like before a thunderstorm. All the developers crawled around like sleepy flies, the modelers lazily fiddled with polygons, the programmers scrolled through code, staring blankly at the monitor. Everyone understood that Shift was the last breath of a dying titan, and the work was carried out in a mournful atmosphere. We knew in advance that we would get a drawn-out and unbearably boring game doomed to failure. The order to stop work was a real relief for the whole team."
Source: www.stopqame.ru
