Ubisoft has revealed more information about the sequel to its popular online racing game The Crew. The French game publisher and developer announced that they would release The Crew: Motorfest this year.
The Crew: Motorfest is the third installment in Ubisoft's open-world racing series. It will be made available on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, PS4, and Xbox One. The developers added that the game could also be played through the cloud via Amazon Luna.
The Crew: Motorfest will take players to the tropical island of O'ahu in Hawaii, Ubisoft said. They also dropped a teaser reveal video a day after making the announcement. It showed some of the progress developers had made, including racing locations. Players can expect to zoom past through the urban jungle of the Hawaiian capital Honolulu and down ashy volcano slopes.
The release date for The Crew: Motorfest remains unconfirmed, but Ubisoft has launched the game's closed beta test through its Insider Program. Ubisoft's Insider Program went live on February 1, with a closed beta test divided into four phases. The first phase will only allow PC players 'in order to make quick reiterations.'
Mickael Da Costa, Communications Manager of The Crew, said they would bring in at least 2,000 players for the Insider Program's first phase. (They) are chosen from our most active TC2 (The Crew 2) players. Our objective for this first phase is to aggregate the most relevant feedback and pay tribute to our most engaged players,
said Da Costa.
Console owners can access the Insider Program during its final phases. The Crew was first launched in 2014. Its sequel, The Crew 2, came out four years later. Both games achieved commercial success but received a mixed reception from critics and players.
The world design in The Crew was highly praised, but it faced criticism for its online-only feature and a user interface that was deemed confusing by some players.
The Crew: Motorfest is currently being developed by Ubisoft's Lyon-based studio, Ivory Tower. The developers added that they would release more updates about the game in the coming months. / ###