When Nacon secured the rights to make an official game of the FIM Motocross World Championship, the partnership got off to a rocky start with MXGP 24.
Rigid handling and dowdy graphics, the negative reception was so strong that the series took a year off. Behind the scenes, the French publishing giant was doubling down on the motorcycle game.
Confirmed in February for a 2026 return, MXGP 26 has been unveiled, and it now uses Unreal Engine 5. This appears to be a theme with Nacon, also announcing today (7th April) that its next WRC game will also ditch the proprietary KT Engine deployed by MXGP 24.
Another change for this season’s motocross title, it will be created solely by Artefacts Studio, as opposed to the game from two years ago, which was created by Artefacts in collaboration with KT Racing.
The creation team promises greater terrain definition and deformation, more realistic rider animations. It will feature a complete real-world 2026-season roster.
“We obviously worked on the physics as well, we developed everything so it matches expectations for the game,” said Producer, Romain Paolillo.
“We have reworked everything; we didn’t take anything from the MXGP 24 physics to be sure the bike and the rider have their own way of being controlled. You will be able to do more precise and realistic whips and scrubs, as well as maintaining [control of] the bike in the air.
“With the terrain deformation, the ruts, bumps and burms give a lot more information to the bike so you can use them to ride more precisely and have more feedback.”
Gameplay was showcased from a work-in-progress alpha build. Despite its unfinished nature, you can see a reworked HUD and much greater draw distances compared to ‘24. Rider (and shirt) animations seem more naturalistic, although in-air movement wasn’t really showcased. Neither was AI racing at this stage.
Nacon confirmed that there have been several playtests over the past weeks and months. No release date was provided, but it is still on track for this year on major platforms.