Along with news that Battlefield 3 is in development, Electronic Arts chief operating officer John Pleasants revealed another major announcement at the William Blair Growth Stock Conference today. A new game in the Need for Speed series (yes, another Need for Speed game on top of the already in development Need for Speed: Shift (pictured above), Need for Speed: Nitro, and Need for Speed: World Online) is in the works at none other than Criterion Games, developers of Burnout. It was previously announced that four games in the series were in development, but the secret fourth game was supposedly being worked on at EA Black Box.

"We"ve taken the Burnout team and combined it with our Need For Speed franchise," Pleasants said at the conference according to The Feed. "So we now have that in our favor because that Burnout team is probably one of the more online-centric and notably high-quality game developers that we have out at Criterion."

This of course casts some doubt on the immediate future of the Burnout series. At the same time, it"s entirely possible that Criterion will continue to support the latest Burnout incarnation, Paradise, through DLC packs while also working on developing this newly announced Need for Speed. The Big Surf Island add-on that"s coming tomorrow shows the size and scope of what can be added to the Burnout universe in lieu of a sequel.