This 12 months we’re celebrating 16 years of Speedhunting, which means there are individuals now studying to drive who weren’t even born when Speedhunters first launched in 2008.
Clearly, this reality is barely terrifying, as a result of in our minds 2008 is only some years again, no more than a decade and a half in the past. However what it does imply – given the size of time Speedhunters has now existed – is that now we have grown up alongside a number of generations of automobile followers from all around the world.
Lots of you might have been with us since day one and are actually fully-fledged adults in society doing vital issues. However there’s additionally a lot of you who could solely simply be discovering what Speedhunters is – the type who may additionally be studying to drive this 12 months.
Talking of anniversaries which might be met with a certainly not response, 2024 additionally marks the 30th anniversary of the Want for Pace franchise, which has resulted in 25 particular person racing video games all through that interval. To our information, that makes it the longest-running automobile racing collection of all time. And it continues deep into this 12 months with the launch of Want for Pace’s new Yr 2 Roadmap for NFS: Unbound.
So why carry up Want for Pace now? It’s a little-known incontrovertible fact that Want for Pace – particularly its writer, Digital Arts – has powered the Speedhunters mission since day one, permitting us to carry you all of the bizarre, wacky, and thrilling components of world automobile tradition all 12 months spherical.
And this hasn’t remained a one-sided affair both. Forged your minds again to 2018, when our very personal Dino Dalle Carbonare even appeared throughout the NFS: No Limits cell recreation as a personality. To not point out Speedhunters heroes reminiscent of Magnus Walker, Akira Nakai and the late Ken Block, who all helped blur the strains between real-life Speedhunting and the digital world of Want for Pace.
That’s why our 2024 mission is to carry this partnership even nearer by offering each Speedhunters and Want for Pace followers with a extra immersive expertise.
Earlier than you heat up the keyboards, that doesn’t imply Speedhunters is altering or promoting out. What it actually means is extra content material for automobile tradition followers throughout each platforms, crafted within the acquainted photography-led storytelling that we’ve strived for since day one.
How does that search for you readers? Consider it as an perception into the world of Want for Pace past the gameplay; a deep dive into the cultures, characters and storytelling which make up each recreation. We wish your suggestions each as avid gamers and automobile tradition followers, and we’ll cowl all the things from the design and improvement phases proper via to unpacking how duties like scanning automobiles and environments make the soar from the true to digital world.
If you happen to’re nonetheless feeling sceptical, know that that is all in addition to our every day Speedhunters automobile content material, which we’ll be ramping up additional in 2024. Because of our superior record of world contributors – one thing we would like you to be part of too – we’ll be uncovering extra avenues of automobile tradition than ever earlier than. And that’s our promise to you as readers, as a result of we all know the proof is all the time within the pudding. Speak is nice, however motion is healthier.
What are you able to anticipate within the coming weeks? To start with, we’ve received an entire load of particular function tales incoming from Japan, together with a glimpse into the controversial world of avenue drifting.
To kick-off our Want for Pace: 30th Anniversary celebrations, it’s historical past time as we head all the best way again to the genesis – the very first Want for Pace launched in December 1994. We’ll be wanting over its inception, gameplay, and the way it’s aged in comparison with the racing video games of immediately.
We’ll even be shedding mild on the plans Want for Pace has for 2024, together with a number of massive updates bringing new automobiles, multiplayer features and extra all year long.
So with out us sounding like some hyper-positive Instagram persona, watch this house, individuals. We’ve received some large issues coming this 12 months, and we would like all of you to be part of it with us.
The Speedhunters
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