I read on the forums last night that EA Games president Frank Gibeau has noticed that sales of Need for Speed: ProStreet weren’t quite as good as EA had hoped. And I quote:

Noting that sales of last year’s Need for Speed ProStreet didn’t live up to EA’s hopes for the game, Gibeau said he thinks it was because the series drifted too far from what consumers expected. ProStreet had dropped the tuner culture and police evasion aspects of previous installments in favor of perfectly legit closed track racing. For the next Need for Speed, Gibeau promised that the series would be getting back to its roots with a number of features, including open-world racing and a new highway battle mode.

Personally I wonder if the drop in sales is more to do with the fact that EA has released one or more new NFS title almost every year since the series debuted way back in 1995 – the only years without a release were 1996 and 2002.

Face it, guys – you’ve been milking the franchise for so long that its nipples are sore and swollen. It’s time to give it a rest. Move the schedule to a new game every two years, make every new release worth its asking price and restore some confidence in your brand amongst critical gamers.