Press release

MILESTONE ANNOUNCES RIDE 5

THE VIRTUAL BIKERS’ PARADISE IS BACK FOR THE MOST AUTHENTIC RIDING SIMULATION

Theale, UK – 13 April, 2023: Milestone is pleased to announce RIDE 5, the new chapter of the two-wheel racing simulation videogame which has become the home for virtual bikers all around the world. As the first New Gen only Milestone title, it will be available on PlayStation®5, Xbox Series X|S, Steam, and Epic starting August 24
 
Take what’s yours: a new career mode featuring a narrator and 10 rivals.
For the first time in the series, virtual racing fans will enjoy a career mode featuring a narrator who will introduce events and guide players throughout their riding journey. A leaderboard will track progress through the four main racing bundles of the career, which will include various events to be completed before unlocking the next one. To spice the competition up, RIDE 5 career mode will also feature 10 rivals with their own personalities, backgrounds, and aesthetics. Players will have to beat their opponents in order to reach the top of the leaderboard. A set of secondary challenges completes the career structure for a total of over 200 playable events.
 
Career apart, Endurance races now support in-race save and rewind features to grant more control and flexibility over the gaming session, while the single-race and time-trial game modes will be the perfect places to refine riding styles, get familiar with the different bike categories and push performance to the limit.
 
High-end technology will bring the game to blur with reality     
Technological improvements will fully exploit the potential of New Gen consoles and top-range PC configurations, ensuring a new, stunning level of realism and lifelike experiences to deliver the most authentic and exciting riding simulation ever. For the first time in the franchise, the Milan-based development team has implemented a Dynamic Weather System, which will calculate in real-time track and air temperature to generate a realistic weather change during races, adding a strategic dimension to the racing experience. The Sky System has also been changed, moving from a 2D technology based on real photos to 3D volumetric clouds to ensure a more immersive visual result; now players can see clouds changing shape and interacting with the lighting based on their density, creating breathtaking views. Technological improvements also affects the motorbike physics, which has been improved in every aspect, from the interaction between the rider and the bike to different lean-angle speeds for each bike category. 
 
Split-screen and cross-play: who will brake last?   
Bike culture knows no boundaries and with RIDE 5 bike lovers can unleash such passion through an enhanced multiplayer experience. Online, it will be possible to join cross-play lobbies both on console (PlayStation 5 vs Xbox Series X | S) and on PC (Steam vs Epic Games Store), and world leaderboards will push players to become the best rider they can be. Finally, strongly requested by the community, for the first time since RIDE 2 the Split-screen is back to let players challenge their friends, side by side on the couch.
 
Many customization options for maximum longevity   
Among the pillars in the design of RIDE 5 is the desire to allow players maximum freedom in living their own journey into the bike world. The race creator game mode serves such purpose, as players can be the director of the competition and create unlimited scenarios customizing their races and championship experience by choosing which types of bike categories to allow in the competition, selecting AI opponents and tracks, creating new liveries from scratch, and even deciding the scoring and rule system.
 
The reference point of two-wheel simulative racing games does not fall short even when it comes to approachability. An enhanced set of riding aids will ease the learning curve and help less experienced players get full control of their bike thanks to assisted brakes, cornering, automatic steering and throttle, ideal trajectory, and many other parameters to master even the most difficult tracks. 
 
Finally, with RIDE 5 players can express their creativity thanks to powerful editors to customise bikes, suits, and helmets. They will be able to share their creations online, also between different platforms, in order to let everyone enjoy the most beautiful ideas.
 
To stay up-to-date on all the news about RIDE 5, visit www.ridevideogame.com
 
For more on PLAION, visit the website and follow PLAION UK on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Twitch. For assets, visit the press server.

About Milestone
Founded in Milan in 1996, Milestone S.r.l. is one of the leading and longest established racing game developer in the world.  The 200+ people team is responsible for hit series like MotoGP™, MXGP and Monster Energy Supercross – The Official Videogame, as well as own IPs Ride and Gravel. For more information please visit  www.milestone.it
About PLAION
PLAION is a leading independent developer and producer of games and entertainment products, with nine development studios and five publishing units based all over the world. Founded in 1994 as Koch Media, PLAION offers a unique breadth of services and solutions, dynamically growing its business to push ourselves and our partners to the forefront in all the segments we operate in.

PLAION runs a multi-label strategy, with fully owned publishing units, such as Deep Silver, Prime Matter, Milestone, Vertigo Games and Ravenscourt, publishing games for consoles, PC and VR platforms across all physical and digital channels.

Additionally - as a global publishing partner - PLAION has formed long-term multinational publishing collaborations with numerous game publishers including Activision Blizzard, Bethesda, Capcom, Focus Multimedia, Giants Software, Koei Tecmo, Paradox, Sega, SNK, Square Enix, Techland, THQ Nordic, Tripwire, Warner Bros and many others.

With its parent company in Höfen, Austria - and the HQ in Munich, Germany - PLAION owns local publishing companies in Germany, UK, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Australia, the United States as well as Japan and Hong Kong.

PLAION owns nine game development studios: Deep Silver Dambuster Studios (Nottingham, UK), Fishlabs (Hamburg, DE), Warhorse Studios (Prague, CZ), Milestone (Milan, IT), Voxler (Paris, FR) , DigixArt (Montpellier, FR), Flying Wild Hog (Warsaw, Kraków, Rzeszów, PL), Free Radical Design (Nottingham, UK) and Vertigo Games (Rotterdam, Amsterdam, NL). Additionally, PLAION collaborates with numerous independent development studios around the world.

Part of PLAION is also PLAION PICTURES, a leading independent film distributor in Europe with a library of more than 1.400 titles. Further business operations include Sola Media, a sales agency and production company for family entertainment, Spotfilm Networx, a multi-channel streaming network, and a sub-label dedicated to Japanese animation.

PLAION also owns the leading video game merchandise company DPI Merchandising (Denver, Roseburg, USA and Munich, DE) and a Quality Assurance Facility in Olomouc, CZ.

PLAION is an Embracer Group company.