The game features a number of improvements over previous entries in the franchise including event-tree objective modes, a wider variety of cars and a substantial amount of additions to police offensive and defensive abilities. Like its predecessor, Hot Pursuit 2 focuses heavily on police chases in exotic cars around picturesque locations around the world. The game is the sequel to 1998's Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit, despite there being 2 games in the franchise in between III and HP:2. It later released on the PC on the 21st of October, 2002. The game launched first on the GameCube on September 30, 2002, then on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox on October 1, 2002. It was published by Electronic Arts for the PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox and PC. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 is a racing game developed by Black Box for the PlayStation 2 and by EA Seattle on the Xbox, GameCube and PC.