Lemke: ProStreet is the grown-up version of Need for Speed

Although at a risk of losing the core base that Underground and Carbon was built upon, ProStreet takes on a higher, more mature level of street racing. It’s no longer focused on the neons and custom looks. Need for Speed ProStreet takes gamers to the spiritual level of racing: performance, speed, and real vehicle physics.

But losing a broad audience and inviting in a new, experienced audience into the genre is a bit risky. 1Up asked Need for Speed creator Hanno Lemke in an exclusive interview if the new direction of ProStreet worries Electronic Arts and the team behind the game, since the title is one of EA’s premier titles that have unbelievable followings and industry impetus. Lemke answered:

I think that you can signal change through more believable graphical styles, through a higher level of physics, and then I think you can be really smart about how you filter and expose the consumer to that. Just like in real life, you can jump into a car, flip off all the assists, and you’re in a boatload of trouble unless you’re a really good driver, right?

But like any great game that’s well crafted, we need to bring the consumer through the experience and expose them to various levels of assists and really have them enjoy the experience. Need for Speed consumers playing ProStreet won’t go, “Oh, my god — this is completely unplayable and no fun! What’d these guys do?”

The initial impression needs to be, “Oh, my god — this is a gorgeous-looking title, a higher level of quality; I can sense that there’s more believability and consequences in the experience, yet it’s still that same raw, visceral, kind of edgy, gritty experience I’ve always looked forward to. It’s relevant because it features the cars and the types of game modes that I really like to play.”

Click on Full Article to read on more of Hanno Lemke’s take on Need for Speed: ProStreet’s new direction.

Although at a risk of losing the core base that Underground and Carbon was built upon, ProStreet takes on a higher, more mature level of street racing. It’s no longer focused on the neons and custom looks. Need for Speed ProStreet takes gamers to the spiritual level of racing: performance, speed, and real vehicle physics.

But losing a broad audience and inviting in a new, experienced audience into the genre is a bit risky. 1Up asked Need for Speed creator Hanno Lemke in an exclusive interview if the new direction of ProStreet worries Electronic Arts and the team behind the game, since the title is one of EA’s premier titles that have unbelievable followings and industry impetus. Lemke answered:

I think that you can signal change through more believable graphical styles, through a higher level of physics, and then I think you can be really smart about how you filter and expose the consumer to that. Just like in real life, you can jump into a car, flip off all the assists, and you’re in a boatload of trouble unless you’re a really good driver, right?

But like any great game that’s well crafted, we need to bring the consumer through the experience and expose them to various levels of assists and really have them enjoy the experience. Need for Speed consumers playing ProStreet won’t go, “Oh, my god — this is completely unplayable and no fun! What’d these guys do?”

The initial impression needs to be, “Oh, my god — this is a gorgeous-looking title, a higher level of quality; I can sense that there’s more believability and consequences in the experience, yet it’s still that same raw, visceral, kind of edgy, gritty experience I’ve always looked forward to. It’s relevant because it features the cars and the types of game modes that I really like to play.”

Need for Speed ProStreet is no longer being catered to everyone, and from the many aspects that Need for Speed has gone through (Hot Pursuit, Underground, Carbon), it eventually boils down to giving the franchise a chance to do what it was spiritually meant to do: satisfy the need for speed. Lemke concludes:

One of the challenges with a franchise is that it’s easy to throw too much at it. You can throw in cops. You can throw in lots of tracks, an enormous open world, different kinds of cars, along with performance and visual customization. We’ve tried all kinds of ideas that would essentially define multiple products. I think that if we start to build a product that’s too broad, it becomes “[everything but the] kitchen sink,” and consumers start to feel that it’s inaccessible.

How will Need for Speed ProStreet turn out eventually? According to Lemke, it’s going to be a different experience on each and every platform the title is going to be released on, and a collector of all versions of the title for the PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PSP, PS2, and DS may feel like he’s collected an entire family of games.