As it was announced in June this year, the next Need For Speed title will be targetting next-gen platforms and it will be developed by Criterion Games after lending the series to Ghost Games studio for nearly a generation. Aside from brief footage from the game that was revealed during the EA Play 2020 event, we haven't seen anything new about the game officially yet. But recently, some early gameplay footage has been leaked online which is rumored to be related to the upcoming Need For Speed.

While nothing has been confirmed about it yet and the build looks to be a very early build of the game, it still provides some basic information about the next-gen Need For Speed title that might be interesting for the fans of the series. As the footage reveals, Need For Speed 2021 will probably be an open-world racing set in an unknown city with urban areas. While the footage doesn't represent the final visuals and environment of the game, it leaks one of the cars appearing in the game and reveals the early version of car physics and handling.

With the start of the current generation, Ghost Games took the helm for the NFS series and delivered Need For Speed Rivals as the first current-gen entry of the franchise. That being said, the series faced a big breakdown with the following iterations. Both Need For Speed 2015 and Need For Speed Payback failed in satisfying the fans with enjoyable and varied gameplay.

With Need For Speed Heat, Ghost Games made a progress after a while in bringing an exciting arcade racing, but it seems Electronic Arts didn't trust the studio for the next generation as they handed the franchised to its previous developers once again.

There's no release date yet for next-gen Need For Speed but it will probably be available for Xbox Series X, PS5, and PC.