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Need for Speed Rivals is a 2013 racing video game developed in a collaboration between Ghost Games and Criterion Games, and published by Electronic Arts. It is the twentieth installment in the Need for Speed series and the debut title for Ghost Games, who would be established as the primary developer of the series for all subsequent non-mobile installments up until 2020. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One in November 2013, and is the final Need for Speed game for both the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. Players take on the role of a Racer or Cop, with each side of the law offering its own play style.

After the commercial and critical success of 2010's Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Criterion Games executives stated that they wanted to draw from the series' roots and re-introduce old Need for Speed ideals. With EA Canada and Black Box restructured and refocused towards online and free-to-play games in February 2012, EA had already formed a new studio in 2011, EA Gothenburg (later known as Ghost Games), who decided to use the Frostbite 3 engine for Rivals. In August 2013, Ghost Games head Marcus Nilsson stated that the studio had been given complete charge of the Need for Speed franchise and that the franchise being bounced between multiple EA studios was not "consistent" with different game types.

Rivals was well received by critics at E3 2013 and was awarded with "Best Racing Game" from Game Critics Awards. It also received mostly positive reviews upon release. It was followed in 2015 by Need for Speed: No Limits and the unsubtitled reboot of this franchise.

Need for Speed Heat (stylised as NFS Heat) is a 2019 racing video game developed by Ghost Games and published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It is the twenty-fourth instalment in the Need for Speed series and commemorates the series' 25th anniversary. The game received mixed reviews from critics, who mostly found the game to be an improvement over the 2015 Need for Speed reboot and Payback but not enough to be a full return to form for the franchise.

Heat was Ghost Games' final game both for the Need for Speed franchise and as a lead developer. In February 2020, EA shifted development of the franchise back to Criterion Games—the developers of the Burnout series, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (2010) and Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2012)—and reduced Ghost Games to an engineering studio for the Frostbite engine, reverting their name back to EA Gothenburg.