As many of you are hopefully aware, Criterion, developers behind the widely successful Burnout franchise, are currently behind the development of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. The decision for this development team to take over a franchise that has been dying with recent releases was one that was welcomed by all fans of the series. However, that also means that Black Box is developing the followup to Hot Pursuit with a Need for Speed title in 2011.

EA Black Box should be best remembered in the racing genre for its efforts on Need for Speed: Underground. That means, despite a lack of confidence from most fans due to past attempts, the Need for Speed franchise should be able to redeem itself with two solid releases in 2010 and 2011.

Unfortunately, if you were a fan of Need for Speed: Shift, you likely won’t see a followup to this style of Need for Speed game for quite some time, but it is something EA wants to approach. According to Patrick Soderlund, EA believes it can compete with Polyphony Digital and Turn 10 in the simulation racer department with Shift. So, we’ll see how that works out — for now, it’s about reaching a widespread amount of gamers with Need for Speed and Soderlund feels the arcade format is best.

“We want to reach a mass-market audience, and Hot Pursuit is a more mass-market appealing product than Shift,” Soderlund said. “We want to come back with an action adventure type of product on an annual basis, but from a developer that’s been working on it for a couple of years.

“Maybe there are two or three developers going at it every second year. Then, when the market permits and when we feel ready, we’ll come up with Shift versions as well.”

This formula has worked well for Activision and the Call of Duty franchise, but then again, it also has backfired as most gamers (who still continue to buy) have labeled the franchise as a money milker. Regardless of which side you want to take on that argument, it’s good to see that Need for Speed is shaping up to once again be a quality title that gamers can expect to love.