Need for Speed Unbound

Although this product has been released, it remains under active development - information may change frequently and could be outdated or irrelevant.

Need for Speed Unbound

Developers
	Criterion Games
Publishers
	Electronic Arts
Engines
	Frostbite 3
Release dates
Windows	December 2, 2022
Reception
Metacritic	73
OpenCritic	76
IGDB	79
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, DLC, Subscription gaming service
Microtransactions	Boost, Unlock
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Racing, Open world
Vehicles	Automobile, Street racing
Art styles	Realistic, Stylized
Themes	Contemporary, North America
Series	Need for Speed

Need for Speed Unbound is a singleplayer and multiplayer third-person racing and open world game in the Need for Speed series.

The game's Palace Edition was released on November 29, 2022, with a global release on December 2, 2022.

The game received its first massive update Volume 2 which fixed tons of issues such as save file corruption, freezes/crashes, number of graphical and audio issues, improved UI/UX and more.

General information

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Epic Games Store		Palace Edition also available.
Origin		Included with EA Play. Palace Edition also available. Manual link for EA App purchase.
Steam		Included with EA Play (Steam). Palace Edition also available.

All versions require Origin and Denuvo Anti-Tamper DRM.

Version differences

Standard Edition only contains the base game.

Palace Edition includes the base game plus 4 exclusive cars, gassy driving effects, Mashman decals and license plate, exclusive character pose and banner artwork and exclusive clothing pack containing 20 items. It also granted access to the game 3 days prior to the full release date.

All pre-orders grant a driving effect, license plate, banner artwork and sticker and $150,000 Bank for multiplayer use.

Monetization

Type	Notes
Cross-game bonus	Having played Need for Speed Heat will add a custom McLaren F1 into garage and an additional $250,000 of bank into Lakeshore Online account.
DLC	DLC includes new cars, customization, clothing, driving effects and other items.
One-time game purchase	The game requires an upfront purchase to access.
Subscription gaming service	Available via EA Play (EA App only).

Microtransactions

Type	Notes
Boost	EA Play members receive the BMW M3 2006 on Day 1, and recurring in-game member-only awards.

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Palace Edition Upgrade	Upgrades the standard game to Palace Edition.
Keys to the Map	Reveals all collectibles and activities and unlocks the "Fury & Zen" clothing pack.
Vol.3 Customs Pack	Unlocks 3 Custom Builds for the VW Golf GTI Clubsport, Volvo 242DL and Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X.
Vol.4 Customs Pack	Unlocks Eddie’s NISSAN Skyline GT-R V-spec from NFS Underground, Rachel’s NISSAN 350Z from NFS Underground 2 and Joe’s Polestar 1 from NFS Heat
Robojets Swag Pack	Unlocks a Legendary Custom for the Mazda RX-7 Spirit R, a clothing pack, driving effects and other items.
Hip Hop Origin Swag Pack	Unlocks a Legendary Custom for the Mercedes-AMG G 63, a clothing pack, a driving effect and other items.
Lotus Exige S Legendary Custom Pack	Unlocks a Legendary Custom for the Lotus Exige S and a 10-level Speed Pass boost.
Ford Mustang GT Legendary Custom Pack	Unlocks a Legendary Custom for the Ford Mustang GT and a 10-level Speed Pass boost.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Need For Speed(TM) Unbound\settings
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1846380/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Need For Speed(TM) Unbound\SaveGame
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1846380/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Epic Games Launcher
Origin		All cloud sync goes through a linked EA account Lakeshore Online progress is separate from your singleplayer progress.
OneDrive		Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers.
Steam Cloud

Video

Video settings

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen		Hor+ gameplay, centered HUD. Story cutscenes seem to be pillarboxed.
4K Ultra HD		Also supports Dynamic Resolution Scaling and static resolution scale.
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Texture Filtering
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Off, TAA and FXAA. SSAA through Resolution Scale option.
High-fidelity upscaling		DLSS 3.1, FSR 2.2, XeSS 1.1
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)		HDR10.
Ray tracing (RT)
Color blind mode		Deuteranopia, Tritanopia and Protanopia.

Some options require a full game restart to apply.

Input

General control settings

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity		Mouse actually isn't used in gameplay, but is used in inspection of car or player models.
Mouse input in menus		The keyboard/controller is used to navigate the menu.
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping		Uses presets
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

DualShock 4 controllers		Via Steam Input DualSense support currently suffers from issues the developers are aware of.
DualShock button prompts		Use this mod.
Light bar support
Connection modes	Wired, Wireless adapter

Generic/other controllers		Steering Wheels
Button prompts

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

• 

  Keybinds 1

• 

  Keybinds 2

Audio

Audio settings

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Car, Speech, Effects, UI, Cop scanner and Music volumes can be adjusted. Under Music Master Volume, the volumes for Garage music, Event music, Open world music and Pursuit music can be adjusted, and option Free roam music available to control when music plays while in free roam.
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio		Many licensed songs from artists feature in the soundtrack.

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Arabic
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian				Fan translation, download.
Spanish

Network

Upon first launch, the game presents you with an option to enable auto-sign in (for online features); the whole game can be played offline.

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Notes
Local play
LAN play
Online play		Lakeshore Online, supports cross-play with PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Dedicated		Hosted by developer.

Issues unresolved

List of official known issues.

Flashing/blinking display while playing on Nvidia RTX 40-series GPU

Update motherboard system BIOS

Issues while using DualSense controller

Workaround: use DS4Windows
Developers are aware of the issue. No official word on an upcoming fix. Disable DS4Windows after playing to avoid unanticipated conflicts with other programs.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	12

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

No middleware information; you can edit this page to add it.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	10
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i5-8600 AMD Ryzen 5 2600	Intel Core i7-8700 AMD Ryzen 5 3600
System memory (RAM)	8 GB	16 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	50 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti AMD Radeon RX 570 DirectX 12 compatible	Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 AMD Radeon RX 5700 8 GB of VRAM
Other	Broadband Internet connection

A 64-bit operating system is required.