Marcus Nilsson, the executive producer at Ghost Games, recently spoke to Official Xbox Magazine (via GamesRadar) explaining why Need for Speed has shifted its focus to an always online connected game.
Nilsson states that bringing Need for Speed online was a key part of the vision for the reboot. The Autolog feature in the game is one of the main focuses for Ghost Games. "We’ve been pretty big with Autolog throughout the years and, as we know, it’s a really powerful feature," stated Nilsson. "This time around we’re going to give it more of a human voice. It will treat your friend’s play as if it is part of the narrative experience."
Another key feature in Need for Speed is the ability to take in-game screenshots, combine that with the always online nature and it makes for some interesting results, Nilsson explains: "Taking pictures of a lot of different moments out to the Need for Speed network where people can 'like' them, and those likes are being pushed back into the game as currency. So you get progression from sharing your photos. The Xbox One has really good built-in systems to make videos and stream them, which we are also going to use."
Always-online games tend to be received very differently by the gaming community, many gamers will be excited by the online connected world, whilst many others will be put off entirely by it. Lets us know how you feel about Need for Speed being online-only in the comments, and whether or not you're interested in the features above.
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