''Riders Republic'' is a

sports video game A sports video game is a video game that simulates the practice of sports. Most sports have been recreated with video games, including team sports, track and field, extreme sports, and combat sports. Some games emphasize playing the sport (such ...

developed by

Ubisoft Annecy Ubisoft is a French video game publisher headquartered in Montreuil, founded in March 1986 by the Guillemot brothers. Since its establishment, Ubisoft has become one of the largest video game publishers, and it has the largest in-house developm ...

and published by

Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Anno'', '' Assassin's Creed'', ' ...

. In the game, players can participate in four main

extreme sport Action sports, adventure sports or extreme sports are physical activity, activities perceived as involving a high degree of risk of injury or death. These activities often involve speed, height, a high level of physical exertion and highly speci ...

s activities, such as

mountain biking Mountain biking (MTB) is a sport of riding bicycles off-road, often over rough terrain, usually using specially designed mountain bikes. Mountain bikes share similarities with other bikes but incorporate features designed to enhance durability ...

skiing Skiing is the use of skis to glide on snow for basic transport, a recreational activity, or a competitive winter sport. Many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and the International S ...

snowboarding Snowboarding is a recreational and competitive activity that involves descending a snow-covered surface while standing on a snowboard that is almost always attached to a rider's feet. It features in the Winter Olympic Games and Winter Paralym ...

and

wingsuit flying Wingsuit flying (or wingsuiting) is the sport of skydiving using a webbing-sleeved jumpsuit called a wingsuit to add webbed area to the diver's body and generate increased lift, which allows extended air time by gliding flight rather than just ...

, in an

open world In video games, an open world is a virtual world in which the Gamer, player can approach objectives freely, as opposed to a world with more linear and structured gameplay. Notable games in this category include ''The Legend of Zelda (video game ...

that meshes several locations in the

Western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Western States, the Far West, the Western territories, and the West) is List of regions of the United States, census regions United States Census Bureau. As American settlement i ...

in one location. It was released for

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013, in ...

PlayStation 5 The PlayStation 5 (PS5) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was announced as the successor to the PlayStation 4 in April 2019, was launched on November 12, 2020, in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North ...

, Stadia,

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...

, and

Xbox Series X/S The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S are the fourth generation of consoles in the Xbox series, succeeding the previous generation's Xbox One. Released on November 10, 2020, the higher-end Xbox Series X and lower-end Xbox Series S are part o ...

on October 28, 2021. The game received generally positive reviews upon release.

Gameplay

The four main activities available in the game include

and

. Ubisoft described the game as a "

massively multiplayer A massively multiplayer online game (MMOG or more commonly MMO) is an online video game with a large number of players to interact in the same online game world. MMOs usually feature a huge, persistent open world, although there are games th ...

sports game", as up to 64 players can compete against each other in Mass Races competitions. The PS4 and Xbox One versions only support about 20 players. In addition, players can also play a 6v6 competitive multiplayer mode named "Tricks Battle Arena". In this mode, each team competes in an arena and needs to perform as many tricks as possible in order to score Trick points. The team with the highest score is the winner. The game is set in an

which meshes seven distinct locations in the

, namely

Bryce Canyon Bryce Canyon National Park () is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States located in southwestern Utah. The major feature of the park is Bryce Canyon, which despite its name, is not a canyon, but a colle ...

Yosemite Valley Yosemite Valley ( ; ''Yosemite'', Miwok for "killer") is a U-shaped valley, glacial valley in Yosemite National Park in the western Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada mountains of Central California, United States. The valley is about long a ...

, Sequoia Park,

Zion Zion (; ) is a placename in the Tanakh, often used as a synonym for Jerusalem as well as for the Land of Israel as a whole. The name is found in 2 Samuel (), one of the books of the Tanakh dated to approximately the mid-6th century BCE. It o ...

Canyonlands Canyonlands National Park is a national park of the United States located in southeastern Utah near the town of Moab. The park preserves a colorful landscape eroded into numerous canyons, mesas, and buttes by the Colorado River, the Green Rive ...

Mammoth Mountain Mammoth Mountain is a lava dome complex partially located in the town of Mammoth Lakes, California, in the Inyo National Forest of Madera County, California, Madera and Mono County, California, Mono counties. It is home to a large Mammoth Mounta ...

, and

Grand Teton Grand Teton is the highest mountain of the Teton Range in Grand Teton National Park at in Northwest Wyoming. Below its north face is Teton Glacier. The mountain is a classic destination in American mountaineering via the Owen-Spalding rout ...

, into one enormous single map. The game features social hubs in which players can meet and interact with each other. The game features a career mode, in which players engage in six different disciplines (Bike Freestyle, Bike Racing, Snowboard/Ski Freestyle, Snowboard/Ski Racing, Wingsuit, Rocket Wingsuit). Each of them has its own progression path. Gradually, players would reach important milestones, such as being invited to join competitions like

UCI Mountain Bike World Cup The UCI Mountain Bike World Cup is a multi-round mountain bike racing series that is sanctioned by the Union Cycliste Internationale The Union Cycliste Internationale (; UCI; ) is the world governing body for sports cycling and oversees int ...

Red Bull Rampage The Red Bull Rampage is an invitation-only freeride mountain bike competition held near Zion National Park in Virgin, Utah, United States, just to the north of Gooseberry Mesa. From 2001 till 2004, it was held off the Kolob Terrace Road, on the ...

Red Bull Joyride Crankworx is a global tour of mountain bike festivals that take place in Australia, New Zealand, Austria, and Canada. The final stop of the Crankworx World Tour is a 10-day festival in Whistler, British Columbia celebrating several gravity-fed disc ...

and the

X Games The X Games are a series of action sports events founded by ESPN Inc. and aired on ESPN networks and ABC. In late 2022, ESPN sold the long-running property to MSP Sports Capital, a private equity firm co-founded by Jahm Najafi and Jeff Mo ...

, and signing with real-world sports sponsors. The final objective is to participate in "Riders Ridge Invitational", described as "a never seen before multi-sport competition featuring all sports in one single event". In this event, players can switch between the sport activities at will. As players progress in the career mode, they will unlock new gears, outfits and cosmetic items.

Development

The game is currently being developed by

using Ubisoft's proprietary game engine AnvilNext 2.0, from the team that created '' Steep'', also an extreme sports game, in 2016. Development of the game started in 2017, and the development team expanded to include members from other Ubisoft's studios in

Montpellier Montpellier (; ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of France, department of ...

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

Pune Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

, and

Odesa Odesa, also spelled Odessa, is the third most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern ...

. The development team recreated the national parks using

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide geol ...

data, and even though the seven locations are distinct regions in real life, the team integrated them together in order to create one single

for players to explore. The studio also sent a team to visit these parks to ensure that they are accurately represented in the game. Like ''Steep'', the game is not a

simulation video game Simulation video games are a diverse super-category of video games, generally designed to closely simulate real world activities. A simulation game attempts to copy various activities from real life in the form of a game for various purposes such ...

, as the team designed the gameplay to be as accessible as possible. The team worked with experts and athletes to ensure that each activity featured is authentic. For instance, different bike brands have stats that would "mimic real life behaviour". The gameplay was designed to be a social game which emphasizes "excitement and camaraderie of online community". This decision was made after ''Steep'' was offered as a free game for

PlayStation Plus PlayStation Network (PSN) is a digital media entertainment service provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Launched in November 2006, PSN was originally conceived for the PlayStation video game consoles, but soon extended to encompass smartp ...

members in early 2019, which went on to attract more than 10 million new players. ''Riders Republic'' was announced on September 10, 2020 during the Ubisoft Forward digital event. The game was set to be released on February 25, 2021, but it was delayed by Ubisoft in January 2021. The game was then set to be released on September 2, 2021, but was delayed to October 28. Players who pre-ordered the game would receive the Bunny Pack, which adds additional cosmetic items into the game. The game would be supported extensively with post-launch

downloadable content content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can be added for no extra cost or as a form of video game monetization, enabling the publisher to gain ad ...

. It was released for

, Stadia,

and

Xbox Series X The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S are the fourth generation of consoles in the Xbox series, succeeding the previous generation's Xbox One. Released on November 10, 2020, the higher-end Xbox Series X and lower-end Xbox Series S are part o ...

on October 28, 2021. A skateboarding add-on was released on September 26, 2023.

Reception

''Riders Republic'' received "generally favourable" reviews, according to

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

. ''

Game Informer ''Game Informer'' (''GI'' is an American monthly Video game journalism, video game magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of video games and video game console, game consoles. It debuted in August 1991, when the video game reta ...

'' awarded the game a 6.75, outlining that "Even though I liked the racing in ''Riders Republic'', overall, I can't say I enjoyed my time with it. It's a missed opportunity of a game, focusing on all the wrong things, making for an experience worth skipping." Other reviewers were much more positive in nature, such as ''

GamesRadar ''GamesRadar+'' (formerly ''GamesRadar'') is an entertainment website for video game-related news, previews, and reviews. It is owned by Future plc. In late 2014, Future Publishing-owned sites ''Total Film'', '' SFX'', '' Edge'' and ''Computer ...

'', saying that it "prioritizes fun, freedom, and community".

Awards and accolades

''Riders Republic'' was nominated for Best Sports/Racing Game at

The Game Awards 2021 The Game Awards 2021 was an award show that honored the best video games of 2021. The event was hosted by Geoff Keighley, creator and producer of The Game Awards, and was held to an invited audience at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on D ...

, as well as Sports Game of the Year at the

25th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards The ''25th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards'' was the 25th edition of the D.I.C.E. Awards ("Design Innovate Communicate Entertain"), an annual awards event that honored the best games in the video game industry during 2021 in video games, 2021. The awards ...

Film adaptation

On May 14, 2025, a film adaptation of ''Riders Republic'' was announced with

Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah Adil El Arbi (born June 30, 1988) and Bilall Fallah (born January 4, 1986) are Belgian filmmakers. The duo, collectively billed as Adil & Bilall, are known for writing and directing the feature films ''Image'' (2014), ''Black (2015 Belgian film) ...

set as directors and Gaumont co-producing alongside

Ubisoft Film & Television Ubisoft Film & Television (formerly known as Ubisoft Motion Pictures) is a French-American film and television production company and a subsidiary of video game publisher Ubisoft based in Montreuil and Los Angeles. The company was founded on 20 ...

Notes

References

External links

* {{Official website 2021 video games Cycling video games Multiple-sport video games Open-world video games PlayStation 4 games PlayStation 5 games Skiing video games Snowboarding video games Stadia games Ubisoft games Video games developed in France Video games postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic Video games set in the United States Windows games Xbox One games Xbox Series X and Series S games