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[EARLY ACCESS] The Rise and Fall of Motorstorm
🕑 Added 2024-07-17 19:10:14 +0000 UTCPlayStation owners throughout the PS1 and PS2 eras had no shortage of arcade and simulation racers. From first-party offerings like Gran Turismo and Wipeout to third-party endeavors such as Formula 1, Ridge Racer, and Burnout, PlayStation players regularly enjoyed their fill of high-octane action. One development house—Evolution Studios—made a name for itself by producing sim racers for the Sony-owned hardware. Evolution’s World Rally Championship, or WRC, franchise received five PS2 entries, dragging fans into off-road excursions with impressive physics and audio designed to reflect the exhilaration of the life-threatening car sport.
Evolution pumped the brakes when transitioning to PS3 development, foregoing its simulation roots in favor of the arcade-driven MotorStorm. Often likened to the carnage of Burnout, MotorStorm set a new bar for off-roading by throwing away the rulebook that many racing games had long followed. The pursuit of these ends resulted in a racer that pit vehicles of disparate types against each other, with dirt bikes fighting for control of the road versus big rigs. Evolution made sure every vehicle controlled differently and every lap around a track offered new challenges, a feat it accomplished across multiple games.
But not unlike WRC before it, MotorStorm drifted to the background when a new generation of hardware skidded onto the scene. Instead of bringing the popular PS3 series to PS4, the developers hedged their bets on Driveclub, the immersive racer where teaming up with others took precedence. Driveclub’s unfortunate failure marked Evolution’s last turn at the wheel and spelled doom for the future of the beloved MotorStorm IP.
This is the rise and fall of MotorStorm.
