How the Crew Keeps Growing

The team behind The Crew franchise recently announced a new milestone: 6 million new players joined the franchise last September, since the launch of The Crew 2 in 2018 and The Crew Motorfest in 2023. Their success is no accident. Over the last year, developers at Ivory Tower have worked on steady, concentrated content drops and quality-of-life improvements for both games, and an intensive, healthy dialogue with The Crew community. If you'd pardon the pun, they've delivered a crash course on how to maintain a vibrant and vital experience to existing players, while continuing to onboard new ones eager to jump in.  

First and foremost, the team is committed to new content for The Crew Motorfest: a whole new island, game modes, vehicles and playlists. In November, Ivory Tower will kick off Year 2 with Season 5 of The Crew Motorfest, which will almost double the size of its map with a new island, Maui. "This is not a minor addition," says Product Communications Manager Mickaël Da Costa. "We're adding more than 470 kilometers [approximately 249 miles] of new road network to the game."

Da Costa hopes that Year 2 will be seen by players as a proper celebration of the franchise. On top of Maui, there will be a second volume of the fan-favorite Made in Japan playlist, accessible for all players. A new premium experience will drop known as The Chase Squad, alongside monthly vehicle drops (the helicopter, a fan favorite, will return), and players can expect a significant graphical upscale on PlayStation 5 Pro once it launches on November 7. "And that's just a glimpse," he says.

None of this content is created in isolation. "We developed The Crew Motorfest publicly with the community," says Da Costa. A six-month-long Insider Program kicked off in 2023, allowing selected players to playtest the game and provide feedback before launch, and since then, the devs have been talking with players on social media, dedicated platforms such as Discord and Reddit, and during dedicated workshops and TTS. Starting with Season 5 and after each season's launch, the team will gauge its reception by launching a public poll on X (formerly Twitter), the results of which are considered for the subsequent season. A new bug reporter to share feedback about qualitative content, tech improvements and issues will also be accessible for all players, and a monthly AMA where players can ask developers anything they want to devs about selected thematics.  

The latter is particularly important in breaking down barriers between developer and player. Players' questions will frequently be answered by developers on TikTok, with the intention of not just providing transparency, but showcasing the breadth of development talent and passion at Ivory Tower. "Who's in charge of the roads, how is the world built, how the cars modeled etc? Each developer gets a chance to share their expertise directly with the community," says Da Costa.

While welcoming new players is an important part of any live game, Da Costa also sees it as an opportunity to expand the community for a more vibrant, living experience. "We want to help players play with their friends," he says, "and we want to make it easier for their friends to join." This means giving them the ability to import most of their cars and vanity collections from The Crew 2 into The Crew Motorfest, and discounts on both games that recently included The Crew 2's price dropping as low as 98% off in September.

"With Year 2 and the drop of Season 5 followed by Season 6 all dressed in yellow, red, and blue,  honestly there's never been a better time to jump into The Crew," says Da Costa.
As for Season 6? Right now, Da Costa will only say "we're working on something amazing with a major partner."

The Crew: Motorfest and The Crew 2 are available on PC via the Ubisoft Store and Steam, and are included with a Ubisoft+ Premium subscription. The Crew: Motorfest is also available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5, whereas The Crew 2 is available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5 through backward compatibility.