EA, It’s Time for NFS UNDERGROUND 3

Dear EA and Criterion Games Team,

I’m writing as a long-time Need for Speed fan with one simple thought: I genuinely believe Need for Speed: Underground 3 could become one of the strongest and most successful racing games EA has released in years — if it is built around the philosophy that made the original Underground games special.

The key is not just the name. It is the feeling.

Underground 3 should not begin with a Lamborghini or Ferrari. The player should start with an ordinary, affordable car — something like a Honda Civic, Mitsubishi Eclipse, Nissan 240SX, Volkswagen Golf, BMW E36, Peugeot 206, or Acura Integra — and slowly turn it into something unique.

The core idea should be:

Don’t collect cars. Build your car.

The player should earn every meaningful upgrade. New wheels should feel important. A better exhaust should matter. A body kit should be something you worked toward. After 20 or 30 hours, you should be able to look at your car and remember how it started.

That emotional connection is something many modern racing games have lost.

I would love to see Underground 3 built around a large city that truly comes alive at night: wet streets, neon reflections, industrial districts, downtown highways, parking garages, tunnels, suburbs, mountain roads, gas stations, underground meets and hidden workshops.

The classic race types could return alongside new ones:

• Circuit
• Sprint
• Drag
• Drift
• Street X
• URL
• Outrun
• high-stakes street races
• pink-slip races
• police pursuits used carefully rather than constantly

Customization should once again be one of the deepest parts of the game.

Players should be able to modify individual bumpers, lips, headlights, grilles, hoods, fenders, mirrors, side skirts, exhausts, wheels, tire profiles, ride height, camber, spoilers, interiors, gauges, lighting and audio systems.

The garage itself should be a place where a player can happily spend an hour without even entering a race.

Most importantly, please avoid turning customization into a storefront.

A full-price Underground 3 should feel complete. Large expansions, additional districts and meaningful DLC can work, but the identity of the car should come from playing the game — not from buying individual body parts through microtransactions.

The soundtrack could also make Underground 3 a cultural event again: modern hip-hop, underground rap, drum & bass, breakbeat, electronic music, industrial sounds, some nu-metal and carefully selected modern car-culture music, while bringing back a few recognizable sounds from the original Underground era.

There is also a unique opportunity here because Underground 3 could attract two generations at once.

Players who grew up with Underground and Underground 2 are now adults and would return because of nostalgia and the reputation of those games.

A younger generation could discover the same concept through modern JDM culture, European tuning, stance culture, street racing, YouTube, TikTok and online car communities.

But I believe one thing is critical:

Please do not make Underground 3 simply because the name would sell.

Give the development team enough time.

Make the driving feel excellent. Make the city memorable. Make customization incredibly deep. Make progression meaningful.

A mediocre Underground 3 could make money once.

A truly great Underground 3 could make Need for Speed the leading street-racing franchise again for another decade.

Imagine the first reveal trailer:

A dark garage.

An old tuner car starts.

The garage door slowly opens.

Rain outside.

Neon reflections on the asphalt.

The engine revs.

Then:

NEED FOR SPEED

pause

UNDERGROUND

pause

3

Millions of players would immediately understand what it means.

There are very few gaming franchises with this kind of unused emotional connection to an entire generation.

Please consider bringing it back — not simply as nostalgia, but as the next evolution of what Underground was always supposed to be.

Sincerely,

A Need for Speed fan