SBK 22 Promises Endless Nights of Racing on Two Wheels, Coming Out This Fall

For years in a row, Milestone developed games on a work-for-hire basis. They released multiple titles, focused on both two and four wheels. Their 1999 game was followed by two more titles in the following year: Superbike 2000 and Superbike 2001.

The company moved away from motorcycle racing for a few years, until 2006 when they came out with Super-Bikes Riding Challenge. Over the past 28 years, Milestone has worked on almost 70 different titles. But the big change for the company came after the decision was made that it would publish its games by itself.

SBK Generations was the sixth and final installment of the World Superbike Series videogame for Milestone. Launched in 2012, critics felt it was rather average, and scores were not that impressive. But the company turned its attention to a series that had even more potential.

After all, MotoGP has been at the forefront of motorcycle racing for decades now. Even though in recent years some fans have felt that WSBK is more exciting, it still doesn't draw in as big of an audience as MotoGP.

After developing MotoGP 13 and 14, Milestone continued to put their expertise to work. They came up with MXGP: The Official Motocross Videogame in 2014. And for those that just wanted a more down-to-earth experience: the first Ride game was launched in 2015.

At present, I've logged almost 160 hours in Ride 3, but there's still much more fun to be had. In 2021 Milestone hit the jackpot again, by delivering Hot Wheels Unleashed. This game became the fastest-selling title of all time for the publisher.

But that's not what we're here to talk about today. Milestone has been off to a great start in 2022, after launching Monster Energy Supercross 5 in March and then MotoGP 22 in April. Both games have received positive reviews, scoring 74% and 77% on Metacritic.

The fact is that Milestone has reacquired the license for creating a WorldSBK game. And while rumors have been going on for some time now, the Italian publisher made things official today: SBK 22 is coming our way in September!

For now, the company has released just a short, announcement trailer. We can see a bit of in-game footage, from tracks like Estoril and Magny Cours. After that, some of the top WSBK riders are featured, with real, live-action shots. Toprak Razgatlioglu is the 2021 WorldSBK champion, and a master of insane stoppies.

Ducati rider Alvaro Bautista, who is currently leading the championship, also has a few things to say about his racing career. Of course, you couldn't talk about WSBK without mentioning Jonathan Rea: the Kawasaki rider has won six titles in a row, between 2015 to 2020. As if that's not enough he is also currently in second place in the 2022 rankings.

This teaser video is enough to make us eager for the Autumn release, even though there isn't that much in-game footage shown. Judging by how Milestone approached its marketing strategy for MotoGP 22, we're bound to get a gameplay video about a month from now! As soon as we get the chance, we'll be back with a full game review as well. Bring it on!