Like 2013's Need for Speed Rivals, this year's Need for Speed reboot from Ghost Games will have an always-online requirement. In a recent interview with Official Xbox Magazine, Ghost Games' executive producer Marcus Nilsson explained why this is the case.
"We've been pretty big with Autolog throughout the years and, as we know, it's a really powerful feature," Nilsson said.
"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."
The Autolog is a social network-like system first introduced in 2010 in Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, which allows friends to set high scores, challenge one another, and share photos. In Need for Speed (2015), the photo sharing function will get its own, automated system.
"We also have a new snapshot system as well," Nilsson continued.
"Which is taking pictures of a lot of different moments – [they go] 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."
Despite often being touted as a progressive feature by developers, always-online requirements have been widely panned by consumers, most noticeably in the backlash against the original Xbox One announcement, which highlighted a console-level online requirement.
Need for Speed is set for release on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC on November 3 this year.
NZGamer.com
