- Primary Subject: JDM: Japanese Drift Master (July 29 Update)
- Key Update: Gaming Factory released its biggest update yet, adding 15 competitive multiplayer races on PC and a free Ayumi side story chapter across all platforms.
- Status: Confirmed
- Last Verified: August 3, 2026
- Quick Answer: The July 29 update adds 15 competitive multiplayer races on PC, Ayumi's free side story campaign, and key bug fixes, while console multiplayer remains pending.
Gaming Factory has pushed out its biggest update yet for JDM: Japanese Drift Master, adding competitive multiplayer racing and a free story chapter on July 29.
PC players get the full package. Console owners get roughly half of it.
The update lands about seven weeks after the game's first multiplayer component went live.
Free roam cruising arrived on Steam on June 11, letting up to eight players share the open world in private or public lobbies, with GOG and Epic Games Store versions following a couple of weeks later.
The July 29 patch builds on that with structured competition, which is what most of the community had been asking for since launch.
Multiplayer Events Add 15 Races to the Open World
The headline feature is Multiplayer Events, a set of 15 races available to PC players across all three storefronts.
Traditional Grip Races put up to eight drivers on the same track, with the first to the finish line taking the win.
Drift Races score competitors on style rather than pace.
There are also 1v1 Challenges built around touge and drift touge runs, which fit the Initial D energy the game has leaned on since its reveal.
Venues include Haikama Lake Drift, a highway grip race that stretches across the map, and the Tofuna uphill and downhill mountain routes. Hosts control the track, lap count, time of day, and weather.
A Ghost Mode toggle disables car collisions, a useful option for anyone who has watched a clean drift run end in a pile-up.
Players can jump into events straight from the open world or through the main menu.
Gaming Factory has been open about why cooperative play came first.
The studio said its community survey showed cruising together ranked well above highly competitive modes, so free roam shipped ahead of structured racing.
Ayumi's Side Story Is Free for Everyone
The other major addition is a Side Story Campaign centered on Ayumi, delivered through the hand-drawn manga panels that carry the main narrative.
It runs eight story events, and clearing all of them unlocks Ayumi's signature car.
This follows the pattern Gaming Factory set with an earlier villain side story that shipped in Patch 1.8.0 back in November 2025.
Each boss character gets their own arc, which gives the studio a repeatable format for expanding the campaign without rebuilding the world.
The chapter costs nothing and launched on every platform at the same time, consoles included.
Console Players Still Do Not Have Multiplayer
PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S owners received the Ayumi campaign and a trimmed set of bug fixes on July 29.
They did not receive Multiplayer Events, and they still do not have the free-roam multiplayer that reached Steam in June.
Gaming Factory said the console update was deliberately smaller because a large share of the improvements are being held back to launch alongside the console multiplayer build.
The studio has described that release as close but has not committed to a date. Cross-platform play across all devices remains on the roadmap with no window attached.
PS5 owners did get one exclusive addition: basic, experimental support for Fanatec steering wheels, along with improved Japanese localization.
Xbox wheel support is still absent, which remains one of the more persistent complaints from sim-leaning players.
The Rest of the Patch Notes
Beyond the marquee features, the PC changelog is dense with fixes that address long-running annoyances.
Tire pressure has been restored to the Car Setup menu.
The Nissan 180SX body kit no longer locks the spoiler slot, so players can keep the kit and swap the wing.
Tiger's Civic no longer vanishes from the garage after being unlocked.
Hideo's garage is now a fast travel point once the main campaign wraps.
Stability got attention too, with crash and freeze fixes covering the main menu, settings, garage, part swapping, the in-game smartphone, and general gameplay.
Automatic gear shifting and e-brake behavior for all-wheel-drive cars were improved under the Arcade physics model.
Heavily lowered cars should also stop catching on invisible geometry in the open world, a bug that has irritated stance builders for months.
A Multiplayer Hotfix followed shortly after launch, cleaning up an S13 rear axle issue, a controller input block during Pira Park drift races, and a map loading crash triggered after post-event voting.
Where JDM Stands Now
JDM has moved more than 200,000 copies according to Gaming Factory, which announced the milestone in January.
The game sits at a Mostly Positive rating on Steam, hovering around 76 percent across roughly 5,900 reviews.
Launch criticism focused on floaty drift physics, erratic AI traffic, loading times, and the absence of multiplayer.
A Physics 2.0 overhaul in Patch 1.6.0 tackled the handling complaints, and this update finally closes the multiplayer gap on PC.
The livery system remains outstanding, and Gaming Factory has admitted it proved more of a challenge than the team anticipated.
That feature, console multiplayer, and full crossplay are what is left on the public roadmap.
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