New TrackMania game to be free

By Ellie Gibson Published 7 April, 2008

And available this month.

Nadeo Studio has confirmed that TrackMania Nations Forever will be available as a free PC download later this month.

Its predecessor, simply titled TrackMania Nations, has been installed more than 30 million times since it was released two years ago. Nearly four million players have created an account to compete online.

TrackMania Nations Forever will feature a new version of the Stadium environment and 65 new tracks. Apparently it's designed to appeal to both casual and hardcore gamers and is perfect for big e-sports competitions.

"Even if you play Nations Forever quietly alone, you can still be ranked in the world, your country, your city or even in your list of friends that you can create by inviting friends to join like in Facebook or MySpace," explained studio boss Florent Castelnerac.

"It is up to each player to set his or her goals - become one of the best players in the world or just impress friends. These ladders are adapted to everyone and they add ten times more interest to solo or multiplayer modes."

According to Castelnerac, you'll be able to challenge friends via email or Messenger. He also confirmed there's a new track editor that offers more options but is simpler to use.

For the first time players of free-to-download TrackMania games will be able to compete online against those who bought the retail version of TrackMania United. There will be servers dedicated to the Stadium environment common to both games.

If you did buy United, you'll also get a free expansion titled United Forever. It'll feature brand new tracks, new design blocks for the seven game environments and a graphics update for the desert, snow and rally landscapes.

TrackMania Nations Forever will be available for download from April 16th.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (20) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Freelancepolice #1 4 years ago

    Trackmania is fucking excellent, nice mid april treat

  • skillian #2 4 years ago

    If it's still using Starforce, unfortunately even being free isn't enough to make me put that on my computer.

    Really hope not, because from what I can tell it's a great game.

  • crozon #3 4 years ago

    i doubt the free edition has starforce, why would it???

    and whats the big deal, i have plenty of games that use starforce and my PC runs fine.

  • Krusty #4 4 years ago

    Not played Trackmania since, erm, Sunshine I think it was called.

    Great fun though, might give this a go...

  • skillian #5 4 years ago

    i doubt the free edition has starforce, why would it???
    and whats the big deal, i have plenty of games that use starforce and my PC runs fine.

    Well, the last one was free too and that had Starforce.

    And it's easy to say your computer is fine, but a quick Google of starforce and malware would tell you why some people don't want to risk it.

  • Baronen #6 4 years ago

    Mac version please, thanks!

  • xandoodle #7 4 years ago

    Is it on mac yet?

    :(

    And yes, the free edition DID ave starforce.

  • qster #8 4 years ago

    Starforce or not.. I cannot wait to get this!

  • Der_tolle_Emil #9 4 years ago

    TrackMania is just awesome. I bought the original, Sunrise and Nations as well and spent ages playing it. Such great games.

  • DUFFKING #10 4 years ago

    No starforce in this one apparantly.

  • Slamhound #11 4 years ago

    I'm pretty sure that they've gone on record saying that TMNF will be Starforceless.

    They're also working on a TrackMania United patch (TrackMania United Forever) that'll also remove the Starforce protection. Excellent.

    Edit: Also, TrackMania DS. *Joygasm*
    Edited by 1 at 07/04/08 @ 11:25

  • skillian #12 4 years ago

    Excellent excellent.

    Definitely getting this then. Just moved my computer downstairs to the TV and bought a couple of 360 pads. This will be a perfect game for that setup.

    edit: trailer here: http://ve 3d.ign.com/videos/25489/PC/Trac... Looks really good.
    Edited by 1 at 07/04/08 @ 11:34

  • mingster #13 4 years ago

    loved trackmania sunrise used to play it online for hours.. had my own music over the top is awesome

  • Willum #14 4 years ago

    Nadeo have indeed dropped starforce from thier games.

    If you haven't played TrackMania before then this is the perfect chance. Nations Forever has tonnes of new content and is backwards compatible with previous games tracks, so right from day one there are thousands to choose from.

    Download it and discover TM POWA! :)

  • asphaltcowboy #15 4 years ago

    Fantastic news!

  • Matfink #16 4 years ago

    No Starforce?! Woohoo! I'd *pay* for this one then!

  • sickpuppysoftware #17 4 years ago

    Indeed, without starforce I'd have paid for this. I owned the first two but after one dead DVD drive I never played them again or bought the follow-ups.

    This is happy news indeed.

  • paketep #18 4 years ago

    Didn't buy TMU because of StarForce and Florent's stupid comments last time.

    Finally got it on Steam (no SF!) and it's excellent, as were the previous ones. Here's waiting for the Forever expansion!
    Edited by 1 at 07/04/08 @ 17:48

  • smelly #19 4 years ago

    LMFAO @ everyone who bought into the negative hype around starforce.

    Gees.. You guys will believe anything you read on the interwebs.

  • DFawkes #20 4 years ago

    Acually smelly, Starforce genuinely screwed my computer, so that's not beliveing what I read. unfortunately, I fear someone could end up reading this and quoting it as a horror story, so I should make it clear it was on Vista when it'd just been releases, and even the Sims 2 did strange stuff. but Staforce was a lot worse, messing with all kinds of stuff, especially stuff that happened on start-up.

    But that's neither here nor there, all that matters is a brilliant game is coming out for free, and i bet it'll still be downloaded less than GT5P was bought with money.