Ubisoft announced Riders Republic during its latest Forward presentation in September, a brand new multiplayer-focused extreme sports IP by the same Annecy-based team that was responsible for Steep. However, like various other experiences that were originally set for 2021 launches, the game has now been hit with a delay.
While a new launch window was not announced, the development team shared an update on its blog that revealed it won"t meet the original February 25, 2021, release plan, only adding that "this additional time will allow our passionate team to deliver the best fun fuelled experience to our players."
Instead of focusing on extreme snow sports like in Steep, the new game is set to offer a much broader experience with biking, skiing, snowboarding, wingsuits, and rocket wingsuits being available at launch. The open-world will meld together various U.S. national parks like Yosemite Valley, Bryce Canyon, and Mammoth Mountain into a single fully explorable map.
Described as a "massively multiplayer" title by Ubisoft, the PC and next-gen console versions will offer races with over 50 players, while the older consoles will support 20-player races. See the original gameplay preview trailer above.
Once the release is back on track, Riders Republic is headed to PC (Uplay and Epic Games Store), Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Google Stadia.