Sumo Leamington — a new studio from Sumo Digital — revealed its next project during the PC Gaming Show 2023 this past weekend. Stampede: Racing Royale is "Fall Guys meets Mario Kart", a free-to-play 60-player battle royale kart racer that focuses on destructive items and elimination-based races.
The game is coming to PC Early Access in 2023, with "consoles" to follow at a later date. The Switch itself hasn't been confirmed, but we'd like to think — given the premise — that we'll be seeing some battle royale racing fun in the future.
Sumo has worked on multiple racing games in the past, including Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing and its sequel, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, Outrun 2006: Coast 2 Coast, and it's even helped work on Forza Horizon 5. This will be Sumo Leamington's first game, and it "proudly adds to Sumo Digital’s heritage with an innovative new take on the karting genre", says Development Director Paul Hollywood.
You'll be able to unlock customisation options and race with friends, family, or anyone in the world in order to come out on top. We're not sure we want to hurt the cute little robots or scuff our pixel art decals though...
Here's the lowdown on what to expect from publisher Secret Mode, along with some "definitely-from-the-PC-version" screens:
About Stampede: Racing Royale
Welcome to Stampede: Racing Royale – the wildest racing event in existence. Step on the gas in thrilling kart racing and battle events, with 60 participants all competing simultaneously. Harness your skills and a huge range of power-ups to steer your way to the front of the herd across in classic circuit racing, or fight the crowd head-on to score the most points in arena-based battles.RACING ROYALE
Stampede: Racing Royale pits 60 players against one another across three-round eliminator events, culminating in a high-stakes finale to crown the winner. Rounds include Stampede Races, which offer classic karting action on outrageously inventive circuits against up to 59 other opponents, and Stampede Battles, where competitors are locked in power-up laden arenas to fight their way to victory.
COLLECT & CUSTOMISE
Keep racing to unlock new vehicles and endless customisation options. Find your favourite kart and make it your own with custom paints and stickers. Dress your character in the finest threads to make sure you and your wheels really stand apart from the herd.LIVE 24/7
There’s always something to be part of in the world of Stampede. Seasons, Events, Challenges, and much more mean the ways you can race are constantly changing, with new rewards always up for grabs.RACE WITH FRIENDS
Start or join a party to experience the chaotic action of Stampede: Racing Royale with friends and family.
Console platforms will be announced at a later date, but in the meantime, you'll need to keep an eye on the Steam page — along with the official Stampede: Racing Royale Twitter — to see what's coming for this exciting-looking racer.
Do you want to see Stampede: Racing Royale on Switch? Cross the finish line and head down to the comments to let us know.
Comments 27
Oh how the mighty has fallen. First it was all Sega exclusive characters (Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing), then it's all Sega with some license characters (Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transform), then it's all Sonic only characters (Team Sonic Racing), and now it's characters that we don't even know (this game). Still if it's any fun I may check it out.
For a fun racer Team Sonic Racing has a nice story mode.
If it has a mode similar to Death Race from F-Zero X, count me in.
Really wish Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed would get a Switch port. Heck make it a collection of both the first game and Transformed.
Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed was as an excellent racer with great SEGA themed tracks that had replayability. I have it downloaded onto my Wii U. A level above Team Sonic Racing Switch.
If this has good mechanics I may check this out.
Call me, intrigued.
I'm getting some Mod Nations Racer vibes from this, and that's not a bad thing.
@Serpenterror They had nothing to do with Team Sonic Racing AFAIK.
The start of the video looked promising, but then the main 3rd person shots looked kind of alright. Not terrible by any means, but this just makes me pine for a Destruction Derby remake with the same 60-player online mode.
Transcript from dev meeting ...
OK ... ideas, everyone?
Mario Kart with 60 players.
Groundbreaking! Get on it!
I already get frustrated with getting hammered every three seconds in regular kart racers. Finding a balance so that people don't feel like item use is oppressive when there's 60 people on the track? Sounds like a difficult task.
Well, if SEGA is too stubborn to keep good studios around, then these studios have to go make their own things. Sad, SEGA really had a good studio there with Sumo Digital that could deliver their own kart racing series.
So, Fall Guys + Mario Kart? I'll take a deeper look once more details get released.
I've been saying Mario Kart should have some sort of elimination/99/battle royale mode since, like... forevs. Fwiw. Not a lot, admittedly, but still.
Can never say no to a kart racer as long as it's good, fingers crossed that's the case for this one!
Out of curiosity, will the Steam version be available for Mac? I would love to take part in the open Playtest.
Sumo racing game, yes. Battle Royale, nah.
Well, Tencent bought Sumo Digital unfortunately. So this makes sense.
@Styrophoamicus Yeah that's exactly my thoughts!
All-Stars Racing Transformed is my favourite kart racer ever, first played it on Wii U and recently got the pc and playing it in 4k 60fps is a joy.
Every Sumo developed racing game I've played has fantastic handling and feels great to play. The fact this is F2P and battle royale style online focused means its a miss for me... but I'm sure teh quality will be high and happy to recomend to others based on their track record.
@LilyGoMEOW Sumo was the developer of Team Sonic Racing, @Serpenterror is correct. Like all Sumo racing games, imo it game played well but for me the team mechanic meaning that you could come in first and still lose was SO offputting to me. And the cutback in characters and vehicle modes after Transformed really hurt it too.
No Sonic no interest
Sumo is a great racing dev, and I like the idea of 60 player races in quick chaotic rounds, so this is actually very interesting to me. Hopefully they do as they promise and release it f2p off the bat and not another "Speedstorm" or "Dreamlight" situation where they promise a f2p game and immediately make it 30 bucks to play it. I'm getting tired of being lied to about these games.
Dead in the water. Don't understand the appeal of battle royal type games personally, but even with that aside, how many last more than a year or two?
Should've just pitched Team Sonic Racing 2 to Sega.
@LilyGoMEOW Sumo did Team Sonic Racing.
@Jhena TSR is the best of the Sonic racing games and I will die on that hill.
@Markatron84
You might be right. Sonic Team Racing is the only one I played.
It is definitely a good cart racer with lots of good Sonic magic.
@gcunit Isn't classic Battle Mode (Balloon Battle) already an eliminaton? Well, it used to be until Mario Kart DS, now it is like get all the points you can within the time limit.
Maybe if they expand the challenge from Mario Kart Tour (which I'm assuming is pretty new to that game) where you're running against 99 CPUs from the bottom and you try to get to the top. If they modify it or make it sort of like the Death Race from F-Zero X that I mentioned earlier, it could work.
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