The Rise and Fall of Motorstorm

PlayStation 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.

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[wolfgangvan-uber]

Great racing series with a unique character and gameplay. Wish Sony wouldn’t have dropped it like a hot Potato after Apocalypse. Imagine how spectacular a PS5 MotorStorm would look like.

[airem]

One of the most underrated series that almost nobody played! I love all three games of this Arcade Racer, too bad Sony is on the Live Service Business because a well done remastered collection would be awesome!

[porscheguy]

Loved apocalypses story, as a young teenager I thought it was the coolest thing going from the young punk to the veteran racer and everyone having their own slice of pie of the city and it's festival. Can definitely tell they brought in an actual writer for that game. It's a shame that they didn't keep it going.

And with the rate of how the bay area is nowadays Im all for having an apocalypse festival IRL 🤣

[makaio]

i want it to come back so bad, so so bad...

[shagal]

Pacific Rift was such a blast back in the day it was nearly the perfect arcade racer!

[buckstop]

It's hard being a racing game fan nowadays

[andygahan]

Great video - I worked on Motorstorm, Pacific Rift & Apocalypse and a bunch of DLC. I'd forgotten a lot of that. Thanks for creating, well done, great info.

[concreteetch]

Motorstorm is a franchise that needs to be remembered. That whole era of studios creating the best first party racing games of a generation is something we may never see again.

[sharpsonmusic]

I remember being about 12, getting a lend of a PS3 and hearing Pendulum's Slam come on and thinking that Motorstorm was the best game I'd ever played. And that was just the demo!

[lchr]

Terrain deformation is one of those things that should have been way bigger in todays offroad games. Just like complete destruction of environments and other things pioneered in the early 2000's, it all got put on the backburner while everyone focused on adding more pixels to everything. They chose the wrong path. I'd give anything for proper AI competition and real-time terrain deformation in a racing game. I don't need 8k HDR graphics.

[justinbruce]

Motorstorm is straight up one of the primary reasons I got into Pendulum and DnB as a genre. Forever holds a warm place in my heart

[Deathshead]

Yikes. The moment I looked at the Thumbnail on my Feed I said to myself "Oh, this is going to hurt..."

[Nades_]

I''ll never forget it....running to the school bus at the end of the day, getting home and unpacking my brand new PS3 with Motorstorm and Resistance. Loved both games but especially Motorstorm, I was blown away by the dynamic mud deformation and was even more shocked when I realised it stayed like it the whole race, seeing more and more tire tracks as the race went on was amazing to me, never experienced anything like it before.

Still one of my favourite racing games of all time.

[TheIronArmenianakaGIHaigs]

I played the Motorstorm Pacific Rift Demo so many times on PS3. I never brough the game but I played the hell out of that demo stage :D

[mazterc]

I remember buying the Sony Playstation branded 24" 3D monitor that came with the 3D glasses and a copy of Motorstorm: Apocalyse. Where the 3D TV hade a very cool feature where you could play a two player game on the same TV with both player having a full screen! Very ahead of it's time for a 2009 3D monitor!

[IISGII]

I recently bought a PS3 so I could experience these games again. I have to say, Motorstorm 1 and 2 were way ahead of their time. Somehow, they still look and feel (minus low resolution) up to date. I haven't played an off-road racing game that I enjoyed more than Motorstorm 1 and 2. I can only imagine how utterly stunning a PS5 Motorstorm would be. Truly tragic.

[SyamDaRos-EndoManno]

Quoting inFamous 2:
"Half as long, twice as bright".
This series couldn't last long without a drastic change (Apocalypse was already a big one), so it was fun until it lasted.
Great video, this series deserved it!

[KamikazeeDolphin]

Motorstorm inspired my biggest hobby. It gave me dreams of being the most bad ass rally racer to ever do it. I'll never be in Dakar or any real tourneys. But when I take my rig offroad and turn up the motorstorm soundtrack... I still make the little motorstormer in me happy. Motorstorm never died, it lives on in the hearts of the children it inspired.

[Eigengrau]

They should have stuck to MotorStorm instead of drive club on PS4, Gran Turismo already has the normal car games cornered.

[cyphaborg]

When you compare the volume of exclusive content with the PS5.
Having this game at a launch window was an absolute blast.