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While setting blistering lap times and fine-tuning your car to be the ultimate apex-kissing machine has its thrills, the art of drifting is just one big dopamine hit. Sliding an immensely powerful rear-drive car in a cloud of its own tire smoke is one of the most satisfying things you can do in some of the big open-world racing games like Forza Horizon 5 and Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown. However, drifting is often resigned to a way to earn some skill points or its own particular event type – how about an open-world racer completely dedicated to going sideways? That’s where JDM: Japanese Drift Master comes in.
Even if this is your first time hearing about this upcoming racing game, chances are you can guess what it’s about from its name alone. Japanese Drift Master places you in an open-world inspired by the Honshu region of Japan, and that alone is a big draw. Despite being one of the biggest destinations in the world for motorsport and car culture, Japan is a criminally-underserved location in the open-world racer genre (although, if leaks are to be believed, the next Forza Horizon game may take us there). With its unmistakable urban aesthetic and countryside peppered with mountains and blossom trees, its a beautiful and poignant setting for a game of this ilk.
To further set it apart from its existing rivals, the gameplay is all orientated around drifting, the cars you collect and modify are seemingly all Japanese in origin and the goal is to make them as slidey and smoky as possible. JDM has already secured official licensing for Subaru, Mazda, and Nissan, and hopefully there’ll be a few more to announce ahead of launch.
In terms of limitations, it is so far being billed as a single-player experience with no mention of online multiplayer racers or a shared world. However, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The storytelling in racing games is, usually, pretty crap, cringy, completely ludicrous, or all of the above at once. Here, JDM is sinking energy into creating an engaging narrative and is using the art of manga to help portray it. Pages of beautiful hand-drawn manga will establish characters and plot lines in between more than 40 drifting events. There will be side quests dotted around the open world too.
It’s a really intriguing project, and one that isn’t all that far away either. Developer Gaming Factor has just confirmed that JDM: Japanese Drift Master will release in Spring 2025 on Steam.
However, you can get a flavor of JDM before then, as its Rise of the Scorpion prologue is available to play as a free demo right now. To download it and learn more about the game, head to its Steam page here.
So, even though this isn’t going to be vying for a spot on our best multiplayer games list like so many other racers, JDM is absolutely one of the most interesting titles I’ve laid my eyes on recently. Check out what else is on the horizon with our upcoming PC games guide.
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