2026 has been such a banner year for gaming that sometimes you look back on the year and think “oh ya that released this year too!” Screamer is one of those games for me, and not because it is forgettable, quite the opposite. I think of the game often to this day, it just feels like a classic to me already.

Indeed Screamer came out a little over 6 months ago, March 26th to be exact. It wasn’t a game that was on my radar at the time, I am not big in the racing genre. But when it came across my proverbial desk and I saw it was a racing game with a heavy focus on the story, I was interested.

By the time I was done with the game it had become my early Game Of The Year nominee. And while it hasn’t quite kept that mantle, it is still in my personal top 5 and a game I would recommend everyone check out. With its twin stick racing scheme it is rather unique, and it is just a blast to play. And the story? Well it certainly doesn’t disappoint.

The team at Milestone hasn’t been resting on their laurels however. Post launch the team has made changes and added new features to the game, including an option for single stick controls. While that might take away some of the uniqueness of the game, the twin stick option is still there and this is just another way to appeal to the racing crowd.

Recently I was able to chat with Federico Cardini, Screamer’s Game Director. We touched on a few topics including the new updates and how the game is going so far. And while I tried to get us any new info on DLC or plans for a sequel, Federico was pretty tight lipped. But hey a writer has to try right?!

Here is that interview in its entirety. Enjoy!

It’s been a little over 6 months since you released Screamer! The reception, both critically and from fans was quite positive, how has it felt seeing all of the excitement and feedback around the game?

The last six months have been very gratifying for us. Seeing people appreciate the hard work that has gone into the game and enjoying the innovations that we brought to the genre is what you hope for as a game developer. We also really enjoy following our hardcore fans on social media like Discord; every meme on the game makes our days a little bit brighter!

No pun intended here, but have you been able to hit any specific milestones in terms of sales or other metrics?

While I can’t go into the specifics, I can say that we’re quite happy about the release of the game and the last few months. I know that online there’s the usual doom and gloom about player numbers, but one must consider that this is a very unique year in gaming with a record-breaking number of very good games being released every month, and one can’t really ignore that when trying to figure out how a game is doing!

There is some inherited risk taking an IP that we haven’t seen in 30 years and putting a fresh spin on it. What was it about the Screamer that made you want to return to it all these years later, and why now?

We felt it was a good moment in time, with the racing genre being quite stale, to try and push the boundaries of what can be done in the genre. Screamer felt like a good fit for this plan; back in the days it was developed with a trailblazer attitude and we approached it with the same spirit now!

You put such a big focus on the story in Screamer which is quite rare for a racing game, and certainly a decision I appreciated. I have it in my top 5 games of 2026 so far and a big reason for that was the excellent campaign and story elements. What made you want to put such an emphasis on the story?

First of all, thank you so much, we really appreciate that you put the game into such high consideration! We really wanted to develop this original big set of characters and their cars, and to do that well, it is necessary to have a good background narrative. From there we decided to take it a step further and develop this idea into a fully-fledged story where these characters could really express who they are. The fact that very few racing games did it at this level was also quite important for us, we wanted to show players and developers that racing games can have a much deeper narrative that what is usually gone for.

Typically around the 6 month mark is when we might start to see new updates for a title including DLC. We’ve yet to hear much post release about plans for Screamer. Do you have any updates planned and if so can you share anything today?

At the moment, we’ve been focusing on the latest big patch, that included the much requested Single Stick control scheme. We’re also working on something quite complicated that has been taking up most of our time in the last few months, although we’re not ready to share any details about it at this stage.

As you mentioned you’ve added the single stick control scheme. I know at release the two stick scheme was a bit controversial as many loved that it was unique, but others wanted a more traditional experience. Was it easy to implement the single stick scheme and how do you balance keeping the game unique while also trying to make the masses happy?

Adding the new control scheme, the Single Stick, has in fact been a bit tricky. The game as been designed with Twin Stick in mind and characters’ steer and drift values had to be adjusted specifically for this control scheme! Ultimately when evaluating fundamental additions to a game such as this one you always have to ask yourself if it actually favors players or it damages the experience, but we believe that a feature that improves on accessibility can never really be bad, especially when it is a toggleable option like this one!  

You’ve made a fair few changes since launch. Outside of the single stick addition what is your personal favourite change or add the team has made since launch? 

In one patch we changed Aisha ability, which at launch gave you a free shield once during a race, to be something that recharges, giving you multiple free shields. This was actually a thing we discussed a lot during development; the team was split between developers thinking multiple shields were overpowered and those thinking it was ok, and at the time we didn’t have anough data to support either opinions. I was in the first group, and ultimately we opted for the safe option, but I’ve been maining Aisha since release so I’m glad the community feedback converged to buff her! Is it selfish? I mean, it is my personal favourite, I’ll let you decide! 

Looking ahead to the future of the series, do you hope to continue the franchise beyond this reboot?

Unfortunately, I can’t really go too much into the details. For now, we’re looking at getting more people to know this new Screamer.