Heyhey racers,
It is with an extremely heavy heart that the Sumo Leamington team announces today that Stampede: Racing Royale will officially be sunsetting this summer.
Due to a variety of unexpected events, live support for our free-to-play kart racing game on Steam and Xbox will cease later this year. Server availability and wider support for the game will end in approximately three months’ time – an exact end date will be confirmed in due course.
Until that closing date, Stampede will still include its usual slate of features, live service options, and rotation of events and content – alongside much more, which we will touch on later in this article.
Before that, the entire Sumo Leamington team want to extend their thanks and appreciation to the Stampede: Racing Royale community. Since the game’s reveal and early playtests almost two years ago, your support and passion for Stampede has been an inspiration to us all. Whilst we are deeply disappointed to end this journey, we are incredibly grateful for the memories and moments you allowed us to make together. Thank you.
Final Season of Stampede: Racing Royale
Despite this news, we have chosen to roll out our remaining unreleased content for Stampede in the ‘Season 1’ update, which will release on Steam and Xbox in the coming days. We are incredibly proud of this slate of content, additions and improvements, and thoroughly hope you enjoy it.
Prepare for new places to race and new machines to burn rubber with. Compete for glory on four new race circuits, each with distinctly different vibes. Twin Thruway is our new stadium-based track, with split track routes to choose from. Neon Circuit is a moonlit, city-based track with tight corners and shortcuts to uncover, whilst Wentworth Park (below) is a leafy location with flowing corners, perfect for huge drifts.
Finally, Stratos Raceway (below) sends us into space, with anti-gravity elements, new moving obstacles, and a few missing sidewalls – so try not to fall into the atmosphere!
Conquer these tracks in a whopping eight new karts. Shave off those milliseconds in the race-trimmed Sabre Slipstream, McAuley JK4/5, and Wentworth EX14B. Meanwhile, the Anima Turbo R and GRT Clash are larger rides that balance out speed with brute strength. Wanna drive something a bit different? Grab the Korrugated Kardboard, the metal-mad Scrapyard Screamer, or the Snooze Cruiser, which lets you join the action from the comfort of your bed!
Look out for details in-game on how to unlock the new karts, each of which will have its own Kart Mastery tree, full of additional items and perks to earn.
Xbox Achievements, Fresh Season Pass, Events, and More
Over 130 new visual items are sprinkled throughout Stampede, including in the new Season Pass, full of fresh gear to unlock. Also, Special Events gets a boost in Season 1, with added variants available for each event.
By popular demand, the Daily Calendar returns for Season 1 of Stampede and is stuffed with more prizes. Log in on 14 different days to earn a new reward, with day 14 unlocking the Wentworth EX14B kart! Party play is also improved as we expand the maximum party size to 12, and the ‘Suggested Friends’ option will now show accounts of players you’ve recently played against, allowing you to connect with them.
For Xbox players, Achievements are now added, so top up your Gamerscore with Stampede – and earn an exclusive headgear item by unlocking all Achievements. PC players, meanwhile, have more options to customise and optimise their visual setup, and Steam Deck players will see more improvements in performance and visuals.
We’ll share even more details in the patch notes for Season 1 of Stampede: Racing Royale when the update goes live on Steam and Xbox. Follow us on Instagram, X, and YouTube, where we’ll be sharing more previews of what to expect.
Once again, we hope you enjoy this final Season of Stampede, and thank every single player for your amazing support. <3
