The Crew 3 is real and an announcement is coming tomorrow

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

The Crew 3 is in development and will be announced tomorrow, according to the official The Crew Twitter account. Ubisoft's open world racing series has never been a real hit with critics, but it must have its players: The Crew 2 still receives updates and seasonal events nearly five years after its 2018 release, which is a longer period of care than its main competitor—the Forza Horizon series—ever receives.

The confirmation has perhaps been prompted by a dataminer, who claims to have found evidence of a forthcoming The Crew instalment in the The Crew 2. Indeed, Ubisoft's Project Orlando has been a known quantity for years now, and has been assumed to be a racing game. According to the dataminer, Project Orlando has become The Crew: Motorfest.

Project Orlando first came to light as part of that ginormous Nvidia database leak. At the time it was believed to be DLC for The Crew 2, but the aforementioned dataminer—whose screenshot has since been smited by a copyright claim—claims it has evolved into Motorfest.

…and that seems very possible. Ubisoft has yet to officially confirm the name The Crew Motorfest, and based on its interactions today, The Crew 3 could be the name. We'll find out soon: the announcement is slated for January 31 at 5pm UTC / 9am PST / 6pm BST, or February 1 at 4am AEST.

Amid share price plunges and a mood of general struggle, Ubisoft announced it has cancelled three unannounced projects last week, including a "team battle arena" title known as Project Q. Now we know that Project Orlando—or the Crew 3, or The Crew Motorfest—is not among those cuts. The project's survival is welcome news, to me at least, who has always wanted The Crew to be good. The sequel introduced planes and boats to its huge open world rendition of the United States, and while it was a bit of fun, the driving and presentation was just no match to Forza Horizon 4, which released months later. Fingers crossed they nail it this time.

Our The Crew 2 review pretty much agreed: "An impressively huge, occasionally beautiful map doesn’t make up for mediocre driving and a lack of multiplayer options," Andy Kelly wrote.

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Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.