It's expected that the game will feature a brand new game mechanic and a "Most Wanted-ish" sandbox style of gameplay. An official announcement is expected to be made in the beginning of July at the latest.
This is indeed very interesting...
EDIT: the above is confirmed. NFS-Planet have found a site that have interviewed John Doyle personally and they have stated a brief portion of the interview.
With NFS Underground the game developed to a series, which is being released every year. Last year EA published Need for Speed ProStreet and for this year we may can expect an announcement of the next NFS game soon.
As Tech2.com reports, they could squeeze some information out of NFS Producer John Doyle:
When asked about the new Need for Speed game, Doyle told me that EA would be making a formal announcement in the next 3-4 months. Even though he didn’t quite come out and say it, he was hinting at the fact that they may go back to the whole Most Wanted-ish sandbox style of gameplay (finally!)
Also expect a brand new game mechanic since Doyle claims that every NFS game out there brings something new to the table. Undergound had the whole tuner scene happening, Most Wanted was just plain awesome, Carbon had Autoscultping and Canyon Duels, while ProStreet was... uhh, crap?
We will see, what the new NFS will bring and if EA will be able to learn from the mistakes in ProStreet.
This is turning out to be an extraordinary turn of events - can NFS XII prove to be the perfect compromise?
[Edited by Chingy42007, 3/17/2008 2:42:53 AM]