Need for Speed 2019 is one of the most-anticipated games this year, and it is expected to be released in the second half of the year. However, a German website reportedly leaked some details about the game well ahead of its release, including its official title.
German gaming website Gameware has listed Need for Speed 2019 on its store. According to the listing, the upcoming game will officially be called Need for Speed: Heat. Preorders for the game are listed only for the Xbox One and PlayStation. The price listed for the game is €67.99, which seems high for a racing game. The listing gave no indication of when the game might arrive on PCs.
This comes as exciting news for fans, but it is not known if the listing is genuine. EA has not revealed the official name for the game yet, but it is standard for publishing companies to work with sales portals early. Thus, it possible that EA actually partnered with the portal which posted the details.
The title Need for Speed: Heat could be real as well. Previously in a thread titled Turning up the Heat on EA’s official forum, the developer announced that the game would miss E3 2019. The title of the thread may have been hinting at the name of the title, “Heat.” The developer hinted at the name of Need for Speed: Payback in a similar way.
On the other hand, there is evidence suggesting it could be fake. The placeholder used by the German site is very similar to the artwork used for the Need for Speed: No Limits mobile game. Moreover, instead of the actual name of the game, “2019” is in the placeholder.
However, one Reddit user stated that the listing (even if it’s true) might not make much of a difference, and the leak could indeed be real.
“But to play devil’s advocate here, quite often retailers use stock photos/covers they made as temporary placeholders for new products they add to their system before they’re able to add proper box art to their pages,” the Redditor said.
Another user who doubted the listing said, “I think it’s fake, if ghost is waiting this long to show us nfs 2019, I doubt they would let something like that slip through.”
Thus, there is no way of knowing if the listing by the German retailer is genuine or not. Hopefully the developer will announce Need for Speed 2019 soon, possibly at Gamescom 2019, which is scheduled to kick off on Aug. 20 in Cologne, Germany.
The first Need for Speed title was released in 1994, but the franchise rose to popularity with titles like Need for Speed: Underground in 2003 and Need for Speed: Most Wanted in 2005. Thereafter, the franchise got several more successful titles, including Shift in 2009, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit in 2010, Need for Speed: The Run in 2011, and Need for Speed: Most Wanted in 2012.
However, the titles released after 2012 have not been as popular as the earlier games. Fans of the NFS series are anxiously waiting for the new title. The last Need for Speed game was released about two years ago, but it wasn’t impressive enough due to a number of issues, such as the progression system not being optimized enough and the greater focus on clocked events.
Meanwhile, games like Forza gained popularity among gamers. With Need for Speed 2019, EA will want to regain the popularity lost to other games.
There are not many details about what Need for Speed 2019 has in store for gamers. However, Playstation Europe previously tweeted a teaser suggesting a return to the basics. The tweet featured a photo showing a slick car, a siren and three police cars. This could mean players can expect a Hot Pursuit-style cops and robbers game.
In February EA first confirmed that it was working on a new Need for Speed game. Then in May, EA reiterated its development of the game and confirmed that it will be released “later in 2019.” At the time, EA said the game wouldn’t be showcased during E3.
“Are you going to hear more about the next NFS title? Yes. Is it being released this year? Yes. Will we be doing anything in June? No,” EA said then.
As far as what the game will be like, EA said that each entry in the series is “the culmination of many different aspects,” and there is a “special essence that appears when all these aspects come together at a very high quality.” This essence is the DNA of the NFS franchise, and it will be injected into the upcoming game too.
