Need for Speed™ Heat

Need for Speed Heat (stylised as NFS Heat) is a 2019 racing video game developed by Ghost Games and published by Electronic Arts for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One. It is the twenty-fourth installment in the Need for Speed series and commemorates the series' 25th anniversary. Set in Palm City, a fictionalised version of Miami, Florida, the game's single-player campaign revolves around the player character partaking in the "Speedhunters Showdown", an exhibition held in the city that promotes legal street racing, while getting involved with siblings Lucas and Ana Rivera as they interact with the city's police force, led by authority figure Lt. Frank Mercer. Heat received mixed reviews from critics, who mostly found the game to be an improvement over the 2015 reboot and Payback, but not enough to be a full return-to-form for the franchise. It would be Ghost Games' final entry; both for the Need for Speed franchise, and as a head studio. In February 2020, EA shifted development of the franchise back to Criterion Games (the developers of the Hot Pursuit and Most Wanted revivals). Ghost Games would be reverted to their previous name of EA Gothenburg, and became an engineering studio for the Frostbite engine. Heat would be succeeded by Need for Speed Unbound, which was released in December 2022.