Since its unveiling in March, The Crew Motorfest has inevitably been compared to Forza Horizon 5. Both games feature large open worlds, casual arcade racing, and vibrant festivals celebrating car culture.
Ubisoft clearly sees Motorfest as its answer to Forza Horizon. Even the initial announcement trailer looked like a Forza Horizon 5 expansion.
These similarities didn’t go unnoticed by Forza Horizon 5’s former creative director Mike Brown, who made a sly dig at Ubisoft’s open-world racer at Gamescom.
Former Forza Horizon 5 Dev Makes Dig at The Crew Motorfest
In a post on Twitter (now known as X), former Forza Horizon 5 creative director Mike Brown shared a photo of himself playing The Crew Motorfest from the Gamescom 2023 show floor. Even though he no longer works for Playground Games, he couldn’t resist making a dig at The Crew Motorfest’s obvious similarities.
“Just played Crew Motorfest at #Gamescom,” he wrote, sharing photos of the Ubisoft stand where The Crew Motorfest’s cover car, the Lamborghini Revuelto, was on display.
One of the photos is a shot of Spider-man’s Tobey Maguire with the caption: “I was looking through some old photos and it looks very…similar.” This is a clear dig at the obvious similarities between The Crew Motorfest and Forza Horizon 5.
Xbox’s Charleyy Hodson, who often hosts the Forza Monthly streams, saw the funny side:
While The Crew Motorfest is clearly heavily inspired by Forza Horizon, a few differences set it apart. As well as cars, The Crew Motorfest lets you explore the island of Ohau in boats and planes.
Events are also structured around themed playlists focusing on different car cultures and manufacturers from Japanese tuners to the history of Porsche.
The Crew Motorfest also has the advantage of being multiplatform. As well as PC, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One, the open-world racer is also coming to PS4 and PS5. PlayStation players have been craving a Forza Horizon-style arcade racer, and The Crew Motorfest is set to fill that void.
Where is Mike Brown now?
Mike Brown joined Playground Games in 2013 as a game designer for Forza Horizon 3. He also worked on Forza Horizon 4 and was Forza Horizon 5’s creative director. Last year, Brown left Playground Games to form Maverick Games, a new triple-A game studio with former Forza Horizon developers.
Maverick Game is currently working on a yet-to-be-announced “new premium open-world game.” Naturally, we’re keeping our fingers crossed that it involves racing.