It’s that time of the year again when the brand new officially endorsed MotoGP game is revealed, with MotoGP 22 heading for an April 2022 release date.
Available for PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch, the latest game of the FIM MotoGP World Championship will include all the riders, teams, sponsors and circuits of the upcoming 2022 season.
The video footage is the 2022 game with the 2021 liveries, with these expected to be updated ahead of the game’s release.
Split-screen multiplayer
Absent since MotoGP 17, offline split-screen multiplayer will return to the MotoGP games with this latest release.
Of note, this is also a new feature of the upcoming Monster Energy Supercross 5, a motocross game by the same developers, Milestone.
This feature, alongside online multiplayer, will be missing on the Nintendo Switch release.
2009 season retrospective
Interestingly, instead of a series of historic challenges across all of motorcycle Grand Prix history, such as in MotoGP 20, MotoGP 22 will have a retrospective mode focussed specifically on the 2009 season.
That year witnessed Valentino Rossi claiming his sixth top-class MotoGP world championship and ninth overall title, ahead of then Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo and Honda rider Dani Pedrosa.
Entitled ‘(NINE) Season 2009’, the mode will mix gameplay scenarios with over 50-minutes of real-world archive footage from that year, voiced by MotoGP documentarian Mark Neale.
As it stands, several of the tracks from the 2021 and 2022 seasons were on the 2009 calendar, but Indianapolis and Estoril were absentees from recent games. Whether these are included is yet to be confirmed.
A ‘classic’ mode was completely absent in MotoGP 21, but there was a suite of older riders and motorcycles to use for single-player races, esports and online multiplayer.
New tutorial and academy
One of the key additions in last year’s title was a Tutorial – however, it was very basic. Now there will be further gameplay sessions in the Tutorial, plus a new MotoGP Academy with electronics, tyre wear, and brake temperature challenges.
The ‘Adaptive Difficulty System’ is said to pop-up game difficulty changes as you ride based on your performance.
Tweaked suspension physics
A recent MotoGP trend has been the use of Ride Height Devices to lower the bikes, helping them to launch more effectively and be quicker down the straights. In the upcoming game, the amount of compression can now be manually altered mid-race.
Enhanced visuals
Especially when played on top-end PC hardware of a PS5/Xbox Series X|S, MotoGP 21 already looked spectacular.
For this year, track surface detail is said to be more noticeable alongside new face animations, improved 3D characters and pitlane representations.
Returning features
It wouldn’t be a new MotoGP game without the Managerial Carrer mode, which returns – although details over any specific changes or improvements are scarce. Likewise, if the bike retrieval system has been revised.
Cross-generational online multiplayer is supported, so PS4 players can race against PS5 players, Xbox One players with Xbox Series X|S players.
As expected, over 120 official contemporary riders, 70+ historic riders and 20 official circuits are represented. In previous years, the MotoE and the Red Bull Rookies Cup have been added post-launch.
MotoGP 22 release date
21st April 2022. For PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.
