New Need for Speed Game Leak Confirms Release Date and Surprising Art Style

gamerant.com:

A recent leak seemingly confirms that EA’s Need for Speed: Unbound is coming this December. Reportedly in development by British studio Criterion Games, it will be the studio’s first Need for Speed game since Need for Speed: Rivals in 2013.

EA has had some difficulty keeping Need for Speed: Unbound under wraps, assuming that some of these slip-ups weren’t deliberate. EA briefly hosted an image for Unbound before quickly pulling it from the site. Meanwhile, Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson leaked the game’s upcoming reveal late last month.

Rumor: Need for Speed Leak Reveals Gameplay Details for New Game

The newest leak comes courtesy of the gaming publication Gematsu, who spotted a product listing for Need for Speed: Unbound on the Japanese retail website Neowing. The page, which was presumably put up early, lists the game’s release date as December 2nd, 2022, for the PlayStation 5. There’s no mention of an Xbox Series X/S or PC release, which seems to conflict with earlier leaks. However, it seems likely that Neowing simply isn’t carrying the other versions. There’s also no indication that Need for Speed: Unbound will come to last-gen consoles.

In addition to confirming the game’s release date, the product listing also included a few screenshots of the upcoming Need for Speed: Unbound. The four images are unfortunately a bit low resolution but give some idea of what the new game will look like. Previous installments like 2019’s Need for Speed: Heat generally aimed for photo-realism as much as possible. However, Need for Speed: Unbound takes a different approach, combining realistic cars and environments with anime or comic-book-inspired characters and visual effects.

Twitter responses to the leaked images were decidedly mixed.