Speaking at a stock conference with investors, EA's CEO John Riccitello has announced Need For Speed Undercover, the next instalment in the long running series of driving games. The title is likely to be released later this year during the usual autumn window.

Riccitello explained that the series should show significant improvements this year as EA has added to the headcount at the NFS studio in Vancouver and split its development cycles:

"One of the things we're doing up in Vancouver with that team is we've had them for 8 consecutive years on a 12 month dev cycle. Last summer we added to the headcount and split the team in two, so now there's two teams on a 24 month cycle and this is our first 16 and a half month game (because we didn't do it far enough ago to give us a full two year dev cycle). Next year's title will be a full two year dev.

"We were torturing a very talented group of people up in Vancouver, which makes it harder to be as innovative every year and now I think we're going to get better from here. So, I'm confident that Undercover is a much better game than Pro Street and I expect that from this point forward we'll do a lot better."

EA bigwig Riccitello also spoke of NFS Pro Street's average gameplay and how the Vancouver team hopes to combat this with Undercover:

"I was pretty disappointed with Need for Speed last year. I thought it was an okay game in terms of gameplay, if not good, but who wanted Pro Street? It was this sort of made up, put numbers on the side of your car and pretend to drive your Ferrari or Porsche where?

"This year we are Need for Speed Undercover, with a very strong mission structure . . . It's a much richer proposition and there's a huge and embedded storyline behind it. Need for Speed was always about the fictional hook of what made you want to be part of the driving. We resurrected the game when we bought out Most Wanted and then Underground, with the chase and be chased or the whole underground ethos of street racing at 3 O'clock in the morning. Now we're coming back with a strong narrative hook so I feel really good about the title."

Expect the official announcement from EA - with all the trimmings of trailers and screens - in the not too distant future.