Summary

  • The next The Crew game has reportedly been greenlit by Ubisoft.
  • The project will reportedly return to the original The Crew formula instead of continuing the Forza Horizon-like design of The Crew Motorfest.
  • The next The Crew game isn't likely to be released before the late 2020s at the earliest.

Another The Crew game has been greenlit at Ubisoft, according to a new report from an established industry insider. The purported project would mark the fourth mainline entry in Ubisoft's open-world racing franchise and will allegedly serve as a return to its original formula.

The Crew series is the sole focus of Ubisoft Ivory Tower, a Lyon-based studio founded in 2007. Following the release of the first entry in 2014, the French developer launched The Crew 2 and The Crew Motorfest in 2018 and 2023, respectively.

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The popular racing franchise is now set to continue, according to Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson, who reports that "the next The Crew game has been greenlit." The exact timing of its reported approval remains unclear, though the implication is that it happened recently. Henderson, who has a long history of credible Ubisoft scoops, later clarified that the new project is a sequel to The Crew 2 rather than being a follow-up to The Crew Motorfest.

The Crew Motorfest Is a Significantly Different Game Than Its Predecessors

For context, The Crew Motorfest marked a notable shift for the series in terms of overall game design philosophy. While the first two entries took place in scaled-down versions of the contiguous United States, the third installment opted for a more condensed open-world environment based on O'ahu, an island in Hawaii. Between this exotic setting, event-driven content, and a festival theme, The Crew Motorfest is much more akin to Forza Horizon than its predecessors were.

Next The Crew Game May Be Called The Crew 3

Since Henderson’s report suggests that Ubisoft Ivory Tower will return to the series’ earlier, exploration-driven gameplay loop, the rumored title could also revert to the numbered naming scheme, releasing as The Crew 3. While the Lyon-based studio may have started working on another project, The Crew Motorfest's seasonal updates aren't likely to end in the foreseeable future. The latest entry broke its predecessor's sales records early on and its current monthly active user count is at least in the tens of thousands, according to public data visible in-game via Summits and custom Car Shows.

Assuming the fourth installment is now in pre-production, it's extremely unlikely to hit the market until well into the next console generation, which is expected to start around late 2027. Modern game development cycles have grown noticeably longer in recent times, with a typical big-budget project now taking at least five years on average. Ultimately, a 2030 launch still wouldn't rule out the possibility of the fourth The Crew game being a cross-gen title, much like The Crew Motorfest was.

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The Crew Motorfest Tag Page Cover Art

The Crew Motorfest
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Racing
Open-World
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Systems
PC-1 PlayStation-1 Xbox-1
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Top Critic Avg: 77 /100 Critics Rec: 65%
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Released
September 14, 2023
ESRB
t
Developer(s)
Ubisoft Ivory Tower
Publisher(s)
Ubisoft
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WHERE TO PLAY

SUBSCRIPTION
DIGITAL
PHYSICAL
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Engine
Snowdrop
Genre(s)
Racing, Open-World