Gaming hasn’t always been the most famous piece of media in history, but certain video game franchises have broken through and cemented their place in pop culture to gamers and non-gamers alike. One such franchise is the universally popular racing game franchise “Need For Speed” (NFS), published by Electronic Arts (EA).
The racing game giant has been well-received since 1994, making it one of EA’s longest and most successful franchises. The latest franchise installment hit platforms this year in the form of “Need For Speed: Unbound, and the question for everyone is, does Need For Speed crossplay exist?
@ Need for Speed: Unbound
To understand the nature of Need For Speed crossplay, you have to look at the history of NFS and see how the game has approached the Need For Speed cross-play question. It was first released in 1994 as a brand-new single-player arcade racer with no multiplayer or split-screen options. After the first game’s release, subsequent games were released with split screen and online-only multiplayer systems; cross-platform technology hasn’t been implemented. These are the games that featured those options:
These games cemented their answer to Is Need For Speed cross-platform? With a resounding “NO” with split screen ending in 2010 and online multiplayer becoming the standard, it seemed that Need For Speed cross-play was a thing of dreams, much like Guilty Gear Strive crossplay.
Everything changed with Need For Speed: Heat, released in 2019 and saw Need For Speed cross-play making its first appearance. Finally, the question “Need For Speed” cross-Platform has been answered with a resounding “YES.” Since then, every major NFS release has implemented Need For Speed crossplay.
Crossplay is an important part of modern-day gaming, and it definitely sucks to see your favorite franchise’s devs being the only reason you can’t join in with your friends in your favorite games. However, more games will implement this feature as time passes, like Tekken 7 crossplay.
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