The latest installment in the popular racing game series, NFS Unbound, was released about two weeks ago. Unfortunately, it underperformed, at least in the UK, according to Gfk.
Need for Speed Unbound had a modest start for a long-running series, which has so far failed to satisfy its players, who expressed this by giving it an average rating of 5.6 out of 10 on Metacritic. While opinions on the score varied among fans and critics.
Of course, this news didn't please the game's developer, Criterion Games Studio, who worked hard to try to bring something new to the series but didn't succeed in doing so, but were the disappointing sales and especially the bad reviews throughout bad news for the game development studio?
Unfortunately, the bad news continues for the developer, as five of the developers considered veterans who worked on the series and the studio for a long time have left, according to GamesIndustry. Criterion General Manager Matt Webster, Executive Producer Pete Lake, Artistic Director Andrei Shires, and Chief Product Officer Alan McDairmant, as well as Chief Content Officer Steve Uphill, have all left.
I'm actually surprised the team hasn't left the studio entirely, as these studio mainstays have been working there for ten, sixteen, twenty years.
In any case, we remind our followers that NFS Unbound recently debuted at 17th place, with sales 64% below NFS Heat. GamesIndustry notes that it didn't receive much marketing or media coverage, which is a shame for a title that's the tenth-highest-selling in UK history. While of the total physical sales, 78% were on the PS5.
