Need for Speed Mobile gameplay footage was leaked on Wednesday, showcasing 45 seconds of open-world-style urban racing that has been in development by Tencent’s TiMi Studio. Previous job listings on the Tencent Careers page had pointed to an unannounced Need for Speed title designed in Unreal Engine 4. Electronic Arts, the publisher behind the original series has not officially confirmed a new NFS game, though the leaked footage seems to adopt aspects from 2 previous games.
The user who uploaded the video on Reddit says the map is directly from 2019 NFS Heat with a few tweaked details. The leak shows that map in both day and night time. It is also claimed that there is currently no story and no cops in the game so far, and there are only 3 available cars- the McLauren F1, the Lamborghini Aventador SVJR, and the Gallardo which are featured in the gameplay. The handling is similar to NFS Edge and includes some drift boost effects according to the user. This is the first time there has been any actual footage released of this project and is said to be taken from a recent iOS build of the game.
EA’s latest release in the NFS franchise was in 2019, with NFS Heat available for PS4, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows, and another on the way that may be exclusive to next-gen consoles. In the mobile realm, NFS Mobile will not be the franchise’s first mobile entry, with NFS: No Limits released in 2015, developed by Firemonkeys Studios. The job listings point to TiMi taking over this project, and they are well versed in creating successful titles. They have created hit titles like Pokemon Unite, Call of Duty: Mobile, and Arena of Valor.
Back in January, previous job listings revealed that TiMi Studio is working on an open-world NFS game under the codename Need for Speed Online Mobile. The listings called for 3D animators, project managers, design specialists and gameplay planners in its Shanghai and Shenzhen locations. Specifically one of the positions would be responsible for “the design of the various gameplay modes of the big world realistic racing mobile game or the design of the racing 3C experience.”