The Need for Speed
Road & Track Presents: The Need for Speed is a 1994 racing game developed by EA Canada and Pioneer Productions and published by Electronic Arts for 3DO. Versions with additional tracks were released for MS-DOS (1995), PlayStation (1996), and Saturn (1996). The 1996 Windows release is subtitled SE.
Summary from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA, read 5 September 2026.
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- Released
- 1994
- Developer
- EA Vancouver
- Platforms
- 3 systems
- Critics
- Not scored
- Steam Deck
- Unknown
- Download
- Not stated
The record
| First released | 31 August 1994 |
|---|---|
| Developer | EA Vancouver |
| Publisher | Electronic Arts |
| Platforms | PC, PlayStation, Steam Deck |
| Genres | Racing |
Source. Catalogue facts from Wikidata Q429246, seeded 30 August 2026.
How long is The Need for Speed? How long to beat it
Total play time for The Need for Speed is about 5.5 hours to do everything, and around 2.6 hours to reach the end of the main story. These are player-submitted times from HowLongToBeat, not our own, shown with the number of players behind each.
| How you play | Hours | Players logged |
|---|---|---|
| Just the main story: straight through the critical path | 2.6h | 42 |
| Main + the extras: story plus the side content most people do | 4.7h | 10 |
| Completionist: everything: 100% the game | 5.5h | 10 |
Source: HowLongToBeat community submissions, read 2026-10-19.
Where The Need for Speed sits on the grid
The grid places every game in the catalogue on measured axes rather than on an opinion. This is where The Need for Speed lands on each map it has the data for, with the share of the catalogue it beats on each axis.
- Year
- 50ahead of 7% of the catalogue
- Reach
- 56ahead of 93% of the catalogue
Percentiles are against the games that carry a reading on that axis, not the whole catalogue: counting a game with no figure as a zero would flatter everything that has one. How the grid works.
What readers say about The Need for Speed
Reviews written by people who have played it. These are separate from the GamingPickz Score and are never averaged into it: that score comes from thousands of Steam reviews with a sample-size correction, and a handful of unverified ratings would distort it rather than improve it.
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Where The Need for Speed appears
The ranked lists and finder pages The Need for Speed qualifies for, from its own genre and platform to what it takes to run.
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Common questions about The Need for Speed
What platforms is The Need for Speed on?
The Need for Speed is available on PC, PlayStation, Steam Deck. It first released in 1994.
Who made The Need for Speed?
The Need for Speed was developed by EA Vancouver and published by Electronic Arts.
How long does it take to beat The Need for Speed?
about 2.6 hours for the main story, 4.7 hours with the main extras, 5.5 hours to complete everything, from HowLongToBeat's player-submitted times. These are community medians, so your own run may be shorter or longer.