Is Motorstorm Coming Back?
Will MotorStorm Return?
When it comes to trying to do predictions, we like to take a more statistical and analytical approach. Try to find patterns in a developers history or looks at other factors that might make a difference, such as critical or commercial success
When it comes to Motorstorm, which was one of my first greatest memories of PlayStation 3 as the visuals and exciting gameplay was one of the earlier titles that justified the PS3 price tag, it becomes hard to take any kind of analytical approach.
Filling up the tank
Motormstorm was mainly developed by Evolution studios, and released just mere months after the cell processing PS3, technically making it a launch window title.
Since gamers were hungry for new and exciting titles titles the game had strong commercial success as it managed to sell over a million copies in its first six months which was a feat for 2006, especially considering people were broke after purchasing the system. More than just commercial success, Motorstorm also fared well critically with an average review score of 82.
Sony took noticed and bundled in the title with hardware which would technically make it a system seller but Sony also acquired Evolution Studios in 2007. The company followed up with another great sequel: Pacific Rift, which was a lot more of the same with some new bells and whistles but mainly new destinations.
Once again the game performed admirably in both commercial and critcal aspects with over a million copies in the first few months and another solid review average of over 82. Both great for an arcade racing title.
Crash and Burn
Unfortunately, after that the wheels came of with Motorstorm as they went back to the well too many times with more sequels and handheld spin-offs. Scores didn’t drop to far but slowly declined into the 70’s.
By 2011 by the time the third mainline game in the series, Apocalypse released, many had lost interest in the series including myself who loved the series but never touched the third entry.
The studio shifted from Motorstorm to drive club which was meant to be a launch title for PS4 as a live service racing game that leaned more into simulation as opposed to Motorstorms arcade roots.
DriveClub looked and sounded promising, especially coming from the pedigree of the studio. However, expectations never materialized into reality and long story short, In 2014, DriveClub was a massive failure. As a result in 2015 about half the studio was cut and in 2016 after attempts to keep the game going, Sony closed the studio with the majority of the studio dispersed to third party studios.
The point is, PlayStation likely owns the Motorstorm IP, meaning that if the series is going to come back Sony is going to want it to. Not all hope is lost as there appear to be reasons that Sony might want to
Fill in the gaps
When looking at Sony’s portfolio of first party IP’s, there is a lot of third person, narrative driven adventures and with good reason. This is the bread and butter of Sony and while they likely know what they are doing just fine, diversity is the key.
At the current moment, there is nothing on Sony’s book the resembles anything like what Motorstorm was offering. I’m of the mindset that if Motorstorm or Pacific Rift was released today it would be a massive success. The main difference between 2006 and now is how many games have integrated live service into the offerings. The term Battle Pass is now a household phrase and if done right, would be the key to taking Motorstorm to the next gear.
During a recent investor call, Sony iterated that they plan to release 10 new live service games by 2026.
Everything that’s old is new again and 2026 will be 20 years from the release of the first Motorstorm, which is not only creepy to say but also enough time that people warmly welcome it back.
There is a potential chance that one of these 10 live service titles could be a MotorStorm reboot.
Arcade Racing Success
It’s clear that both Nintendo and Microsoft have well performing arcade racing titles and Sony must want a piece of the pie.
For Nintendo, the record breaking success of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is without question one of their most important series with the most recent entry selling over 43 million as of their latest earnings report and selling at a rate of about 5-10 million per quarter reliably.
A large part of the success of Mario Kart is because of how patient the company is with the series which leads to high quality entries. In around 30 years we have only seen a handful of entries. Motorstorm had almost the same in less than a decade, which led to the series burnout.
Shifting lanes to Microsoft, In a earnings call in early 2022, just months after the release of FH5, it was said that the game had seen over 18 million players, which most are coming from Game Pass but if even a portion of those players remain invested in the game or signed up for the service just for that title then that’s likely a big win for Microsoft.
When looking at the big picture, its not hard to see many reasons why Sony bringing back MotorStorm makes sense.