MotoGP 25: Milestone predicts the 2025 season and reveals big changes to this year’s game

“We chose to call it ‘arcade’ because it’s clear for everybody,” says MotoGP 25’s game director Matteo Pezzotti, “but don’t imagine Mario Kart. It’s a MotoGP game. It’s a realistic experience.”

Those are reassuring words for anybody with half an eye on the upcoming MotoGP 25. For the hardcore devotees who’ve mastered the demands of independent front and rear braking, deploying the ride height device, babying the throttle to look after the tyres and catching the high-sides before they flip you up into orbit, the announcement of an ‘arcade’ handling option might have sounded like the series is dropping all that meaty, satisfying challenge.

It’s not. The simulation handling is still there, it’s just accompanied by another option now.

And for anyone who tried that famously challenging ride in recent releases and found it either too demanding without the assists or a bit muted with them, Pezzotti’s description hits the spot. You want to feel how untamed and vicious a modern MotoGP bike is, you just don’t have 100 hours to spend mastering the controls.

Milestone’s been at the helm of the MotoGP franchise since 2013 now, and although its earlier releases felt further towards an arcade handling style, the physics and feel for MotoGP 25’s arcade mode are all bespoke.

Lead game designer Stefano Talarico likens it to Forza Horizon’s driving feel: “As you drive, you’re feeling that you are a hundred per cent in control of the game. And you always feel at the limit.”

That accessible new handling model might well be what brings a bigger audience to MotoGP 25, but what will keep them there is its career mode.

It’s long been the jewel in the franchise’s crown: you work your way up through the Moto 3 and Moto 2 categories (or skip straight to the big bikes, if you’ve got no respect for protocols), develop your package during testing, manage relationships with other riders and watch the paddock evolve as the riders swap teams and categories during the off-season.

And new to this game, there’s a host of training activities, inspired by the way the real riders sharpen their skills between race weekends. Flat track, motard, and minibikes are now part of your activities as a rider, taking place across four tracks in two environments.

“It’s something that maybe the media doesn’t talk about a lot,” says Pezzotti, “but in the last year a lot of the riders started to train in groups.”

The famous VR46 ranch where the likes of Bagnaia, Bezzecchi and Morbidelli regularly spar is just one example. The Marquez brothers have their clique of Spanish riders, including young Moto 3 hotshot Max Quiles. Reigning champion Jorge Martin trained with (now retired) Aleix Espargaro at Rocco’s Ranch in Barcelona.

“We tried to recreate that for an immersion standpoint, and to add a layer to the career,” says Talarico. But there’s also a gameplay-driven reason for putting in the graft: you can increase your physical performance status, and improve your relationship with other riders by accepting invites to go racing with them between championship rounds.

As the custodians of the MXGP and Supercross franchises, Milestone knows how to make loose surface bike racing feel great too, but the team stresses that including these training modes wasn’t simply a matter of dragging and dropping the physics model from one franchise over to the other – it’s all bespoke.

These are just the highlights of MotoGP 25’s new additions, which also include an overhauled audio model, built by recording the real bikes during race weekends in 2024, a shift to Unreal Engine 5, and a deeper bike development system that should make that ‘let’s bring Yamaha or Honda back to their glory days’ career modes all the more satisfying.

Of course, those developments are only one side of the equation. Milestone also has to effectively predict which bikes and riders will have the pace this season, at a point when it’s barely underway.

So we thought we’d put them to the test. Behold, visions from the future, as seen through the Milestone crystal ball – starting with the big one. Marc or Pecco for the championship?

“It tears me a bit,” says Pezzotti, “but I have to say Marc.”

“Matteo’s my neighbour at my desk,” says Talarico. “The moment Marc signed that contract, I leaned over to him and said ‘It’s over. We don’t even need to see the whole season.’”

A definitive start. Onto a trickier one: will Aprilia win a race in 2025?

“If Martin can get well soon, I think he has the chance to win some races later in the season,” says Talarico.

“Maybe a couple of sprint races,” says Pezzotti. “But in the longer races, it’s very difficult for Aprilia to surpass the Ducatis.”

Next up are the predicted Moto 2 and Moto 3 champions: “Rueda will be very strong for sure [in Moto 3] and I’m very curious about Max Quiles,” says Talarico.

“Setting the skill of the riders in Moto 2 and Moto 3 is one of the most difficult tasks of the game,” smiles Pezzotti. “We have to patch it five or six times during the season.”

“[In Moto 2] Canet is one of the main suspects, but we hope for Tony Arbolino and Celestino Vietti because they are strong guys,” says Talarico.

Finally, after taking a podium in arguably the dirtiest looking set of leathers MotoGP has ever seen, Frankie Morbidelli is the subject of our final prediction: how much muckier can the man’s attire get by the end of the season?

Talarico is diplomatic in reply. “ Well, it was in Argentina where there were a lot of flies. Like Mark's helmet was completely black… I think he’s consistent, he’s finding his confidence. This is his best season for a while.”

MotoGP 25 is available from 30 April on PC, Xbox Series X/S/One, PlayStation 4/5, and Nintendo Switch.