It marks the fourth motorcycle game from the KT Racing studio, with outposts in both Paris and Lyon, following Motorcycle Club in 2014 and two TT Isle of Man titles.
The official MXGP games have been created by Italian studio Milestone between 2014 and 2022, releasing seven titles in total – 2018’s MXGP Pro being a particular high point, in our opinion.
MXGP 2021 – we now know this was the final MXGP game created by Milestone.
The final MXGP title to be released by the former team was MXGP 2021 in 2022 (strangely), which our review was lukewarm towards.
“It’s time to innovate further with the next instalment,” we said at the time.
Since then, despite numerous attempts, Milestone declined to comment about the future of the MXGP franchise to Traxion.GG, following a concerning update in January of this year.
“As a reference point for lovers of two-wheel racing video games, it was difficult for us to make the decision not to release a new chapter of the MXGP series,” read the statement.
It has, however, still been committed to dirt bike racing, releasing yearly Monster Energy Supercross titles, the most recent of which, 6, released earlier this year.
Behind the scenes, we’d got wind of a developer change, but this has now been confirmed this evening (26th July 2023) by KT Racing social media.
“We are pleased to announce that we are working on the development of an MXGP Game that will offer all two-wheel fans 100% official content,” read the post.
The French studio relinquished the World Rally Championship licensing deal to Electronic Arts in 2021, with the deal beginning in 2023. It means that last year’s WRC Generations was the final rally title, for now, from the team.
It is also currently working on the upcoming Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown, an open-world successor to a beloved series set for an ‘early’ 2024 launch.
TT Isle of Man: Ride on the Edge 3 used the KT Engine, but was developed by Nacon Studio Milan.
Publisher Nacon recently assigned TT Isle of Man: Ride on the Edge 3 development to Nacon Studio Milan, which was a significant step forward for the franchise and used the same KT Engine technology as WRC and Test Drive. Milestone, meanwhile, is busy working on the upcoming Ride 5 and Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged.
The near future, you know, is Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown,” said Sébastien Waxin, Senior Marketing Project Manager for Nacon’s racing titles, to Traxion.GG in October 2022.
“For the future after that, we have other projects when it comes to racing. After what we did with the KT Engine, we won’t throw everything in the bin.
“We have other projects when it comes to sim racing. We cannot give you details on that [today], but we have other products.”
Image credit: MXGP via KT Racing
Haven't played any KT developed games, for anyone that has, do you think the new MXGP games will be better or worse than the Milestone ones?
Ready for something new. Hopefully they listened to all the players. Hoping its so good , it puts my marriage in jeopardy.
I think its going to be better, I'm a fan of the KT Rally Racing games they were making. Specifically WRC8, WRC9, WRC10 and the last one WRC Generations.
Physic wise i believe they will be a force to be reckond with. I just hope they can figure out scaling and turning. Which lately has been my biggest pet peeves with motocross games.
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