During Gamescom Opening Night Live 2025, Saber Interactive and Focus Entertainment revealed Road Kings, the latest chapter in their successful series of racing simulation games after MudRunner, SnowRunner, Expeditions: A MudRunner Game, and Roadcraft.
Whereas most of the previous games focused on off-road driving, though, this one is squarely aimed at delivering the definitive trucking experience. Players will start out as rookie drivers behind the wheel of a 40-ton semi, hauling cargo across the coastal plains of the American South, from Jacksonville to Savannah. They will have to keep an eye on everything that real truck drivers do, from regulations to fuel, unpredictable weather, and much more. There's even going to be a narrative component that ties everything together, exposing the human element to the drivers and everyone involved in trucking.
At Gamescom 2025, I had the opportunity to chat with Saber Interactive Porto Game Director Peter Mack and Chief Creative Officer Tim Willits about Road Kings, which is scheduled to launch at some point in 2026 for PC (Steam), PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S|X consoles (a Nintendo Switch 2 port is still under evaluation).
Peter, which game did you work on before this?
Peter Mack: This is the first project I've worked on at Saber Porto. My experience before this was working with smaller LEGO games at another company, but I've now been with Saber Porto for many years.
Okay, so this is the first project you've been doing.
Peter Mack: With Saber Porto, yes.
How long have you been working on this game?
Peter Mack: This project started production around three years ago and was in pre-production for a year before that.
Does this run on your proprietary engine?
Peter Mack: No, it's Unreal Engine 5.
Are you using any of the signature features, such as Lumen and Nanite?
Peter Mack: Yes, we're taking advantage of a lot of features that are now available.
I don't know if you can share that, but is Road Kings also coming to the Nintendo Switch 2?
Peter Mack: I would have to get back to you on that.
Tim Willits: We haven't quite decided that. Yeah, we're investigating it, but we're looking at our pipeline and stuff. One of the things to add to his answer about technology is that yes, it runs on Unreal, but we are leveraging the knowledge and experience that Saber has developed with Snowrunner, road crab, Mudrunner, you know, and any fantastic. We know vehicles. We know big vehicles, and we know trucks. You can really feel that it's solid, real, when driving. We have been praised for our realistic simulations.
Saber has done many racing simulation projects about trucks and stuff like that. Where does Road Kings sit in this portfolio?
Peter Mack: I feel this is a spiritual successor to all of the simulation-centered titles that have come before it. It's inspired by them and it makes a very nice complement to Saber's other racing simulations.
Tim Willits: Yep. Right in the middle! We are very proud of it. We've added that Saber spirit to it, where you are the hero of the open road. It is a true truck simulator, but you do so much more. You help people in need, you help communities in need...
Tim Willits: It's very human.
Peter Mack: It's about trucks. At its core, it's a truck simulator. But we also understand that the interesting things are really the people and the lives surrounding trucks. It's about human relations and how the trucking business affects the people in it. It's history, it's tradition. It's all important, all part of the experience. It's not just about the gearheads and the machines, so we try to incorporate as much of that as we can.
You said there is a story in Road Kings. Can you talk a bit about that?
Peter Mack: Sure. As I was just saying, trucks are a huge part of society, so they are involved in a lot of very important things to a lot of people. We tried to create a story that touches on these facts and what we've learned by talking with truck drivers and understanding their lives. We tried to create a narrative that the player, as part of an immersive simulation, can engage with or not. If you like to just sort of work and drive for long-haul trips over the road, you can, but if you want to engage with a sort of narrative experience, you can do that, too.
Tim Willits: Especially in America, where trucking is very important. The country is really big, and we don't have trains like in Europe, so the trucking culture in America is very unique. Tapping on what Peter said about that spirit and human factor, that is really important.
Peter Mack: There are also all the changes that are happening in the industry right now. When we were doing research for Road Kings, we were reading about and speaking with people about their fears about the impact technology has on trucking. If you look at blogs lately, it's about autonomous trucks and when they are coming and what they are going to do to this very important aspect of society that has existed in the United States for hundreds of years, and how it's going to be affected. Along with that, there's the change in the technology of the trucks. There is a change going on in the climate and the increasingly unpredictable weather, which often affects drivers and puts them in danger. All these things are for us narrative components to bring into stories you encounter in the game..
Can you share how long the story of Road Kings is going to be?
Peter Mack: I understand it's topping out at about 10 hours of gaming, but that's pretty much if you sail right through and if you do story beat after story beat.
Tim Willits: I mean, it's a simulation game. You can play forever beyond the story.
Peter Mack: There is also a layer of procedurally generated conditions and stories that you can encounter. For example, the dispatcher can call you up. Again, taken right from the pages of drivers, blogs, and diaries, they call you up and tell you that they made a mistake and the job you're doing is wrong, and can you do them a favour and take it to the other side of the state? And if you say yes, if it's convenient and makes sense, you get a reputation with the dispatcher, and if you say no, you get paid as normal. So, in addition to it being endless in terms of the simulation, there's even the sort of endless aspect to the small stories you can encounter.
The weather is dynamic, right?
Peter Mack: Yes.
Does it include icy conditions?
Peter Mack: Let us get up toward Missouri and we can talk about that, but right now you're in sort of north Florida to southern Georgia. So, we don't have snowstorms for now, but we're looking at it.
Can you talk about the asynchronous multiplayer mode?
Peter Mack: Sure. Right now, we have an online mode in which you can create and customize your own company and invite your friends to join. Each of you can do jobs in your own environment, which contributes to your company's success, growing its worth and capital. But it's asynchronous, so you don't see them driving around, although they do appear in the game, I believe, with their liveries and such that they've chosen for their truck.
Is there a leaderboard for the player-created companies?
Peter Mack: Yes.
Is it cross-platform? Can you invite a friend who plays the game on another platform?
Peter Mack: Indeed!
Do you plan to support Road Kings post-launch, with more content and features?
Peter Mack: Absolutely. 100%. We already have a lot of content planned for after launch. We find that this game lends itself very easily and naturally to expansion, not just in terms of geography, but in terms of truck types and customizations. All is expandable post-launch, but we also see very easily that we can add more stories and more narratives and more dispatchers, and more companies. I think we have fifteen more companies already lined up to be considered.
Would these be premium DLCs, or possibly some free DLCs, too?
Peter Mack: I think we're looking at a plan that includes all of the above.
Fair enough. Thank you both for your time.
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