Need for Speed Rivals announced for Xbox One, PS4, and current-gen

EA has announced Need for Speed Rivals, saying that the next entry in the long-running racing series will launch for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on November 19.

Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions are in development, but are not yet dated.

Need for Speed Rivals is being developed by the new, Gothenberg-based studio Ghost Games. The game will use DICE's Frostbite 3 engine, EA says.

The game blends elements of Criterion Games' Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and Most Wanted, offering up a large open world--dubbed Redview County--and allowing players to take the role of a racer or a police officer. Cars are reported to be customisable, and Ghost Games claims the game will seamlessly integrate both its single-player and multiplayer gameplay with a feature called AllDrive, which lets players drop in and out of each other's worlds.

The series' social tracking service Autolog will also return.

Need for Speed's almost 20-year history has seen multiple developers handle the game, and the series has seen both ups and downs. Black Box's Need for Speed: The Run, which was developed using the Frostbite 2 engine, was panned upon its release in 2011. Criterion Games' 2012 Need for Speed: Most Wanted and 2010 Hot Pursuit were both well received, however, and their creative director, Craig Sullivan, has joined the team at Ghost Games to oversee development of Rivals.

A Need for Speed movie is also in the works.