The Crew Motorfest takes Ubisoft's open-world racer to Hawaii this year
And closed testing starts tomorrow.
Ubisoft has announced The Crew Motorfest, a "new era" for its open-world racing series that'll whisk players off to Hawaii when it launches for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC later this year.
Specifics on the new live-service game are fairly limited right now, but The Crew Motorfest, as its name very much suggests, is themed around a "one-of-a-kind" motoring festival (presumably even more one-of-a-kind if you pretend Forza Horizon doesn't exist) featuring "tailor-made races, themed events, and other unique challenges".
All this unfolds on the island of O'ahu, described as the "perfect playground for players to have fun together in with their vehicles". The entire island will be open to explore - giving players access to the likes of volcano slopes, steep mountain roads, rainforest, and sunny beaches - with The Crew Motorfest promising "hundreds of the most legendary vehicles".
Ahead of Motorfest's full release, Ubisoft is holding closed testing across multiple phases to "gather feedback to ensure an optimal player experience at launch and beyond", with interested parties able to sign up now via the publisher's Insider Program. The first session, which starts tomorrow 1st February, is PC-only "to allow for quick iterations", but testing will open up to consoles during the "final phases".
There's no release date for The Crew Motorfest just yet, but it's due to arrive later this year on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PlayStation 5, and PC via the Ubisoft and Epic Games Stores - Steam, notably, is excluded despite Ubisoft's tentative recent return to Valve's platform.