"Racing games have become stale"

Marcus Nilsson, the executive producer for Need for Speed: Rivals, talks with Bengt Lemne about All-Drive, co-op racing, and the renaissance currently being enjoyed by the racing genre.

"What we've seen in the last couple of years is maybe racing games have kind of declined a little bit," Nilsson told us. "I think it had a 22% market at one point and now it's down to single digits, but what's interesting with that I think is that not only I see a future in racing games, other publishers also see that there's obviously a need for great racing games. Having multiple studios do that at the same time, multiple franchises, is that we're going to help push that boundary forward."

The executive producer continued: "Racing games have become stale. You go around in circles shaving seconds off a lap. You can do that in a nice and shiny new car, absolutely, but I think everyone needs to push forward. There's some really interesting other games out there as well, but I really think Need for Speed: Rivals is pushing it, again with the Alldrive with the aspect of it; blending between single player, co-op and multiplayer. So we're going to see great innovation from the competition out there, and remember that Need for Speed [Rivals] is the only game you can play co-op in a racer. Which is fucking fun... Fun. Sorry."

Need for Speed: Rivals is heading to PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 on November 19, with next-gen versions of the game set to follow thereafter.