The most recent game, Need for Speed Unbound, was released on December 2, 2022. The series released its first title, The Need for Speed, in 1994. The series is one of EA's oldest franchises not published under their EA Sports brand. The series generally centers around illegal street racing and tasks players to complete various types of races while evading the local law enforcement in police pursuits. Need for Speed ( NFS) is a racing game franchise published by Electronic Arts and currently developed by Criterion Games, the developers of Burnout.