The Future of NFS (Interview with Patrick Söderlund)

The Eurogamer website published an interview with one of EA's executives. A summary of the facts with my translation:

• Criterion will not work only on NFS, and plans for their further cooperation with EA are still unclear. It is possible that another third-party developer will be brought in to create games with a development period of about 2 years (as was the case with Hot Pursuit - translator's note).
• the Burnout series will continue to evolve further (a clear hint that Criterion will be the one working on it - translator's note).
• the "action" direction (World, Hot Pursuit, etc.) and the "simulator" direction (Shift) will remain active. Every Christmas, a new game in the "action" series from BlackBox can be expected, while the semi-simulators of the Shift series from Slighty Mad will be released without a predetermined timeframe, when ready.
• it has been acknowledged that the delay of Gran Tursimo 5 will have a positive effect on Hot Pursuit sales.
• the goal of Shift is to "achieve leadership in the authentic simulators segment"; Shift's competitors are Forza and GT, and among Shift's advantages, its availability on all platforms was cited.