Race Offs, Arcade Mode, and Unreal Engine 5: How Milestone plans to reinvent the wheel(ie) with MotoGP 25
23.04.2025
Jason Fanelli, Contributor tarafından
That's how MotoGP 25 lead game designer Stefano Talarico describes the mission of the next installment in the long-running motorcycle racing franchise. I'm speaking to Talarico via email, and the focus on authenticity shines through. Even within the constraints of an annual release cycle—a process Talarico calls "very challenging" due to "tight schedules and resources"—the team at developer Milestone continues to iterate in ways that make the game feel more authentic every single year.
With MotoGP 25, much of that authenticity is coming from the transition to Unreal Engine 5, and the avenues it's opened up in course design, graphical fidelity, and brand-new modes that cater to new and seasoned MotoGP players alike. We got the full rundown of the biggest additions zooming onto the racetrack in this year's MotoGP, and racing fans will have plenty of rubber to burn this time around.
Face off in Race Off Events
Many fan-favorite features from MotoGP 24, like the Career mode and the Riders Market, are returning in MotoGP 25. The biggest addition to the game, at least from Milestone's perspective, is the new Race Off Events feature. MotoGP 25 focuses on three specific disciplines—minibikes, motard dirt bikes, and flat track bikes—and Race Off Events will allow players to practice on each in order to fine-tune their racing skills.
According to Talarico, the decision to focus on these three disciplines came from speaking with the riders themselves. "We had the chance to talk with different riders from the sport, and all confirmed what we already knew: They love to ride their bike, and even when they have some day[s] off, they spend it racing," Talarico says. "Since they can’t use their championship prototypes, they race whatever they can, but especially flat track, motard and minibikes."
Unreal Engine 5 allowed the team at Milestone to build each of these specific disciplines from scratch, from core physics to sounds recorded at a real-world racetrack, and these aren't the only avenues the engine opened. "Of course, new disciplines also required some specific gear," Talarico explains, "and so we made some special liveries for our official riders and offered new helmets and items for our players’ custom riders."
That "Arcade" feeling
Milestone has always prided itself in its ability to recreate a true-to-form simulation in the MotoGP franchise, but sometimes players just want to hop on a bike and race for a while. This year, the team hopes to appeal to them with the Arcade Game Experience, which allows players to switch between the authentic simulation of the Pro Experience and a more "pick up and play" approach.
"The MotoGP series is well renowned for its simulative heart and its 'hard to master' gameplay, but we also wanted to lend a hand to newcomers," Talarico says. "Arcade Game Experience was created to give the players the chance to reach the limit and fully enjoy the brute force and extremes of a prototype bike, without technicalities and other potentially scary layers that might create friction to their game experience."
This more casual experience ended up influencing another very important part of the MotoGP experience: tutorials. Now that MotoGP 25 offers two distinct playstyles with different overall objectives, the ways in which the game teaches players how to race need to change as well.
"Tutorials in MotoGP 25 are a much smoother experience designed to teach the basics of how to ride in game," Talarico says.
That's not the only way MotoGP 25 plans to teach those new to the sport what to expect.
"Other than that," Talarico continues, "we provide the players with a compendium of rules and regulations of the real sport." With this, anyone new to the MotoGP scene will not only learn how to play this game, but they can also take that knowledge and apply it to watching a MotoGP race in real time.
Finding the sweet spot
When creating a new MotoGP game every year, the developers and players aren't the only people considered during the decision-making process. MotoGP is a global brand owned by a Spanish sports management company called Dorna, and working with a brand owner comes with its own set of expectations. Luckily for Milestone, Dorna has been very easy to work with.
"After all these years of collaboration, [Dorna] really trusts us with almost every aspect of the development cycle," Talarico says. "We have a vision for the series as a whole, so before a production cycle starts, we list a set of objectives that we want to reach for that given game, and we submit it to Dorna; the approval cycle of those objectives usually is fast though, as our long-time relationship has granted us a strong level of trust."
That's not to say Dorna never has any feedback or requested changes. However, when any critiques from the Dorna side present themselves, the process to implement those changes is also very quick. "Our collaboration allows us to smooth out everything really quickly," Talarico explains. "When everything’s sorted, we follow our usual pipeline, and when Dorna receive[s] their usual preliminary build, they tend to give us small feedback that we can rapidly fix."
For racers old and new
Milestone hopes that there is something for everyone in MotoGP 25, and they've given both tenured and rookie racers plenty to enjoy. The returning players have the Pro Game Experience, which retains the "hard to master" simulation gameplay that veterans know and love, so they'll be able to pick up and play right where they left off from last year's game.
However, while the Arcade Game Experience lets new players focus on driving, where should they take that experience first? In Talarico's opinion, there's one clear answer: Career mode. Along with playing through multiple seasons of the MotoGP circuit, Career offers some commentary on a player's driving ability so that they might improve in future races.
"This year, we let [Career mode] players choose their path to victory, and we redesigned the bike development by introducing debriefings, which puts players and their feedback under the spotlight," Talarico says. "MotoGP 25's Career mode is really focused on the player’s involvement, and because of this, there is no better place to start."
MotoGP 25 races onto the Epic Games Store on April 30. Pre-purchase it now!