MXGP 26 is out, rebuilt from scratch in Unreal Engine 5 by a new studio
Nacon's motocross series has changed hands to Lyon's Artefacts Studio, which rewrote the physics and added ruts that deepen lap by lap. It is on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S for $49.99, with no career mode worth the name until next year.
MXGP 26 - The Official Game launched on October 1 across PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. It is the second MXGP game Nacon has published and the first made by Artefacts Studio in Lyon, and the studio's own launch post is blunt about how much it threw away: new engine, rewritten bike physics, rebuilt rider animations.
What is in it
The package is the full 2026 season - the official MXGP and MX2 calendar with 19 tracks, 16 bikes and the real riders. Five modes cover Grand Prix, Championship, Time Attack, a free-roam area called The Compound, and online. Offline fields run up to 20 riders in MXGP and 16 in MX2 to match the official grid; online caps at 10 to keep races smooth, with ranked public lobbies using Elo alongside private ones.
The feature Artefacts leads with is dynamic track deformation: ruts build up over successive laps and change where the fast line is. Three surfaces - hard pack, sand and clay - each behave differently in the wet. There is also livery and gear customisation using licensed brands, plus replay and photo modes.
How much help you want
You pick an assist profile at startup, from Amateur to Expert, with Amateur handing out considerable air assistance while you learn. Turn the assists off and you get free whips and scrubs. There is also an optional manual stand-and-sit system, off by default, where the rider's weight genuinely changes how the bike behaves rather than just animating differently.
What is missing
In a developer Q&A attached to the launch post, lead producer Romain says a proper career mode is the focus for the next game rather than this one - Championship is described as career-lite - and that cross-play is not in MXGP 26 but is being looked at. The team's first post-launch fixes are aimed at compatibility problems on some PCs.
Why it matters
Officially licensed motocross games tend to arrive annually and change very little. Handing the series to a new studio and starting over is the opposite bet, and it comes with the usual cost of a rebuild: the physics are new, and the career mode is a year away.
Why it matters
A full engine and physics rebuild is rare in annual licensed racing games, and MXGP 26 ships the new handling while openly deferring its career mode to the next entry.