The Crew Motorfest

The Crew Motorfest is an online-only 2023 racing video game developed by Ubisoft Ivory Tower and published by Ubisoft for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. It is the sequel to 2018's The Crew 2 and the third game in The Crew series, and was released on September 14, 2023. The game is set in an open world environment; scaled-down versions of the Hawaiian islands of Oahu and later Maui. It has received generally positive reviews from critics and is considered an improvement over its predecessors.

Gameplay
The Crew Motorfest is set in a scaled-down version of the island of Oahu in Hawaii. It is themed around a festival that will serve as the main area for accessing the various events in the game, which is similar to that of the Forza Horizon series of games. Its gameplay is similar to that of the previous games in the series, featuring online multiplayer features referred to in game as a "crew", as well as being able to control vehicles other than cars such as planes and boats.

The main part of the game is "Playlists", which consist of a series of staged events, side activities, and challenges. As of September 2023, there are fifteen playlists, each with a different theme such as vintage cars, Lamborghini and collaborations with influencers such as Supercar Blondie, Liberty Walk (company) and Donut Media.

Multiplayer modes include the "Grand Race" and "Demolition Royale". The Grand Race a long race that is approximately 10 minutes long with 28 players online split up into three sections for three tiers of racing. The sections and tiers for each race is chosen by random and swaps every 30 minutes, while the race route is random for every race. Demolition Royale is the game's demolition derby-based battle royale mode, where up to 32 players are put into crews with the main goal of driving their demolition-type vehicles to destroy the racers of other crews in a shrinking safe area. Power-ups spawn in the safe area to give racers an advantage, such as shields and health. The Demolition Royale ends when only one crew still has at least one racer remaining.

The Main Stage, the game's live-service mode, consists of a monthly theme with unique limited-time rewards. Each week of each month, players earn experience to fill up the Revisit, Racing, and Explore timelines to earn rewards. After filing up one of the Main Stage timelines, the player unlocks the "Legend" timeline, filled with its own set of limited-time rewards.

Every week, a sub-theme of the main stage theme will be used for the "Summit Contest", a weekly themed contest where players compete in nine challenges—six races and three feats—to earn points for a tiered ranking of Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. The top 10,000 players with the most points—the Platinum-tiered players—can receive an exclusive prize, including limited-time Summit-exclusive vehicles or titles to display on the name of the player in-game, and the person in first position for each week will have their player name carved into a star for all players to see in Festival Tent, where every player loads into when starting a session in the game.

The "Custom Show" is a weekly contest where players can customize their vehicle to the weekly "Summit Contest" theme and let players vote for which vehicle they like. At the end of the week, the players with the most votes get rewards.

Much like its two predecessors, The Crew Motorfest requires a constant internet connection to play.

Development and release
Motorfest was developed by Ubisoft Ivory Tower. It started as a DLC expansion for The Crew 2, although that changed when several ideas for changes in progression structure weren't compatible with the current game engine.

It was internally known as Project Orlando during development until October 2022 when the title and setting of the game were leaked. Before the Motorfest name was decided, it was tentatively entitled The Crew Motorcamp.

It was announced with a teaser trailer released on January 31, 2023. A closed testing period for Motorfest on PC began on February 1, 2023, with testing for consoles coming at a later date. The game was released on September 14, 2023 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Journalists noted the similarities between Motorfest and the first two Test Drive Unlimited games (2006 and 2011), which several developers from Ivory Tower worked on previously and also share Oʻahu as a main setting.

On the 2024 Ubisoft Forward which was held on June 10, Ubisoft announced that The Crew Motorfest would include another Hawaiian island, Maui, along with "The Chase Squad" content. It will become available in November 2024 as part of the Year 2 plan.

Reception
According to review aggregator Metacritic, The Crew Motorfest received generally favorable reviews from critics. The game was nominated for "Best Sports/Racing Game" at The Game Awards 2023.

It debuted as the second best-selling game of the week in the United Kingdom. It also became the fastest-selling entry in the series.