Could Rennsport Become the New Assetto Corsa?

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Are You Excited for Rennsport?

  • Yes

    Votes: 404 59.0%
  • No

    Votes: 281 41.0%

  • Total voters
    685
Rennsport, the new hardcore racing simulator from Germany, is trying to take the sim racing world by storm. With promises like using Unreal Engine 5, full modding support and a wide variety of vehicles, Rennsport is surely aiming to be none less than the be-all-and-end-all of sim racing and sim racing eSports. But what do they need to achieve that lofty goal?

The Timing is on Rennsports’ Side​

Announcements of Rennsport could hardly have come at a more opportune moment. The Sim Racing niche still riding on the after-effects of an all-time high in interest and cries becoming louder about the ageing competitors means the time is ripe for something new. All that is left now is for the Munich developer remains to keep developing the hype and execute on their promises.

Who are the direct competitors?​

As the premise of this new simulator is realism in combination with user-created content, basically all existing sim racing games are the likely market for Rennsport. Especially, however, the current modding platforms of both Assetto Corsa (AC) and rFactor 2 (rF2). As those titles, released in 2014 and 2013 respectively approach their 10th anniversary without another serious challenger in the modding field so far, the German simulator has all the chances to take the laurels.

Since we must not forget the other titles, a good selection of base content and the promise of focus on online multiplayer and eSports may also take drivers from Assetto Corsa Competizione or iRacing. The least affected community could still be RaceRooms’. Since that sim enables a single- and multiplayer experience for virtually any PC; the graphical superiority of Unreal Engine 5 may make low-end PC users struggle to run Rennsport. Speaking of graphics, …

Graphics and Modding of Rennsport​

With the ever-growing trend of many end-users increasingly craving hyper-realistic graphics, the bar for modding will be quite high in the Rennsport community. Simple conversions of existing AC or rF2 tracks will most likely not do. Models, as well as textures, will have to be redone completely to match the high-quality standard of the base game. Not to even begin with the different physics models for vehicles. Otherwise, nobody would pay for them.

Speaking of paying for mods, Rennsport will also need to deal with their “real digital ownership” model. How would that work exactly? The premise on their website is set to be: “Your assets will be owned by you. And you can trade them through the marketplace of your choice.”

Personally, my immediate thoughts about this statement wandered towards the Steam Marketplace, where mostly skins for Counter-Strike or Team Fortress 2 weapons circulate.

Would this mean the market would establish the price of a mod and the modder would gain a part of the transaction money each time a transaction is made? Or can the modder establish the price themselves and sell the item for a price they want, while follow-up sales do not reimburse the original creator?

And since these are only 2 options amongst several more, a more detailed overview would need to arise before passing judgement. About prices though …

How will Rennsport price its official content?​

One of the biggest questions that still needs an answer is the pricing of official content. Will it follow the iRacing formula of having to pay a monthly fee to access your purchased content? Or will it follow the more standard pricing policy of a fully-priced base game and purchasable extra content or DLC?

There is also another option of financing that would arise in the aforementioned Steam Marketplace-kind of a deal. Valve, the developers of the Steam platform, skim between 5-10% off the top of any Marketplace sale. If Rennsport were to use a similar system and end-users embraced it, this could help finance the ongoing development.

What’s still in Store for Rennsport?​

With impeccable timing on their side, the new German developer has all possibilities to hit the ball out of the park and create the one sim to rule them all. However, the tightrope walking of pricing content will either make or break the success. Make content too pricey and people will be hesitant to try it out. Too cheap and you could be bankrupt rather quickly.

But of course, it will also need to be accepted by the sim racing community first. So, what are your hopes and fears for Rennsport? Be sure to let us know in the comments down below!
About author
Julian Strasser
Motorsports and Maker-stuff enthusiast. Part time jack-of-all-trades. Owner of tracc.eu, a sim racing-related service provider and its racing community.

Comments

I hope its actually BETTER than AC.

AC is a little more than a driving and hotlapping game anyways, and despite the advances done by modders, they mainly focused on the graphics aspect, so it remained a mostly driving and roaming game.

I want rennsport to follow the footsteps of the original rFactor, a RACING game first and foremost, with racing rules implemented, decent AI, and more physics features simulated so that we are able to recreate present and past racing.
 
They can make a better AC, I just hope they don't f it up. While they announced that it won't use NFT technology they still can use similar terrible monetization methods and be just as bad.

I really want an alternative to AC and rF2 and Rennsport could be it, they just have to not mess up their "digital ownership" thing. And until they clear up what they mean by that, I'm not really excited.
 
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To much hype ue5 for me is more of a smoke screen, no details related to the modding options available (liveries?, Cars?, Tracks?), Physics?, Lan only multiplayer? Offline play, Ai?.
It they want to make it the moba for simracing that means that it will be close to many types of moddifications.

It will be more a wait and see... Like f1 2022
 
“Your assets will be owned by you. And you can trade them through the marketplace of your choice.”

I don't really get how that works. If I make a model of a Citroen Berlingo how can I own it? What if 20 people make their own Berlingo models of varying quality? Is there only going to be one Citroen Berlingo or will we all own our own versions?

I'm reserving judgement, they seem to be using all the right buzz words but at its heart I'm not convinced that it's not just a way to cash in on this market.
 
D
We already have AMS2 that is attempting with some mixed success become a kitchen sink of content AC replacement.
As Rennsport is not focusing on specific car category with limited content, like GT3/Gt4 in ACC, fidelity of simulation most likely will be below Competizione.
We also have AC2 in pipeline, gonna see how this will look like. If Kunos follows logical path of using UE5 as well, we can end up with at least visually closely resembling each other sims with Kunos having advantage of time proven excellent physics engine underneath.
I know there were some talks of building own proprietary engine, but I don't think it's something small team like Kunos can pull off, esp. if aiming at modern games graphics fidelity requirements.
 
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Assetto Corsa has 20k mods on RD, and thousands more elsewhere.
The second highest total for a single title is ACC with 2k.

Any title that wants to take over the moddable title throne from AC would benefit immensely from having a relatively painless mod import feature. It can't be perfect, obviously, but without such support, I can't see mod support getting much traction.

But hey, I might be wrong.
 
Nope, it reminds of R3E that was released instead of GTR 3 by Simbin.
And now Rennsport...again German so i guess its created by the same group from R3E? And maybe Ian Bell is involved
So you know nothing about RennSport, but your answer is "nope"?...

Your questions were already answered. And no, your favorite CEO in the world, Ian Bell, is not involved, nor does RennSport has anything to do with R3E.
 
Premium
Could Rennsport Become the New Assetto Corsa?

Well, yes... of course. But it depends on what the finished product can do as a racing simulator what will define its place in our beloved pantheon. I think the real question is, will this title be THE ONE (with all the juicy goodies we have been promised before)? A mesmerizing blend of all the good things that LFS / GTR2 / iR / AC / ACC / RF2 / RR / AMS2 have, combined into a single title?

That would make it the holy grial of Simracing... ain't it? :coffee:
 
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Why good simulation must always conflict with good SP experience
Yeah, I'm wondering the same. We haven't seen any major AI development for a long time. Modern sims are also thin on single-player gameplay features besides the core physics or they do it half-way.
Currently, I'm mostly enjoying AMS1, because to me it offers best racing weekend immersion and an enjoyable driving experience. ACC is also good in those fields, but let down by dull AI.
Since Rennsport is poised to be primarily an esports platform, I'm not very optimistic that it'll even include AI of any sorts. I sincerely hope to be corrected.
 
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LOL. No chance.

On the other hand, the publisher 2K Games could buy Kunos and give the studio crazy means to further improve their products.

On the other hand, we always come back to the same thing, nothing will replace reality and if we get close to it, it will be necessary that the data be calculated in the cloud for the AI and very good networks in the world to not have display problems (oh my god, I ran over a security guard following a lag).
 

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