Need for Speed Heat is a racing game set in an open world environment called Palm City, a fictionalized version of the city of Miami, Florida and its surrounding area. The in-game map features diverse geography, including mountainous areas and open fields.[9] Unlike Need for Speed Payback, Heat doesn't include a 24-hour day-night cycle but instead players can switch between day and night. During the day, players can take part in sanctioned race events, which reward players with cash to spend on new cars and upgrades. They can also take part in illegal street races at night, which would earn players rep. The more rep player earns, the more aggressive the police will be during the night. Players must escape the cops and get back to their safehouse before getting arrested or before their car is destroyed. The game also features a storyline in which the players interact with the city’s police force, led by authority figure Lt. Mercer.The game will feature 127 cars from 33 different brands with Ferrari returning to the game after being absent from Payback due to licensing issues.Unlike Payback, performance upgrades no longer come in random Speedcards and are unlocked by rep and winning races. The game will feature microtransactions, including time savers, which will help unlock content faster as well as paid downloadable content.
On August 19, 2019, Electronic Arts released the NFS Heat Studio app for iOS and Android devices. Users can collect and customize their cars which can be imported into the main game upon release.