Need for Speed: Undercover coming in 2009

The first details on the next Need for Speed game, Need for Speed: Undercover, have surfaced, most surprising of which is that the game will not be out until 2009, thus ditching the series’ usual ‘one game per year’ release schedule. John Riccitiello, CEO of Electronic Arts, announced the game and said the two year gap was to reignite the franchise and up its quality, which is good to hear since I don’t really think there’s been a good Need for Speed game since the series’ inception. He also says that the game will have an atmosphere very close to the the film “The Transporter,” or, to be more precise that is what the crappy Google translation came out as.

For me this is good news. I had always wondered why the Transporter movies didn’t have videogames based on them. Driving from point A to point B really fast is pretty much what the movies are about and that usually lends itself well to games. I’ll be looking forward to this one unless the game also takes inspiration from Qi Shu’s voice in the movie, which was the most annoying thing ever. No word on what systems we’ll see the game on but since it’s EA, it’ll probably be represented across the board.