It’s no secret that as far as simulation titles go, there hasn’t been anything new for a while. But this new mysterious sim came up out of nowhere, so let’s discuss what RENNSPORT could be about.
Image credit: RENNSPORT
In the world of top level simulation racing titles, there are a lot on the market. However, in terms of sims that are consistently in the conversation for the top spot, there are only really five. Those five are: iRacing, rFactor 2, Assetto Corsa Competizione, the original Assetto Corsa and finally RaceRoom.
So when this RENNSPORT title came up out of nowhere, we were intrigued. It promised a dedicated esports competition focus, an immaculate set of visuals using Unreal Engine 5 and what they’re calling ‘real digital ownership’, whatever that means.
We were able to find a few details about this project that has raised some questions of our own. So let’s speculate about RENNSPORT.
Heavy Esports Emphasis
We all remember the shocking news that Coanda Simsport’s Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup drivers such as two-time champion Josh Rogers, 2021 runner-up Mitchell DeJong and their other drivers Tommy Østgaard, Martin Krönke and Mack Bakkum were withdrawing from the championship. None of us could really put a finger on why but maybe now we have found our reason.
Danny Giusa of Haupt Racing Team made the observation of a Virtual Racing School advertisement on the side of the track in RENNSPORT‘s official promotional imagery. VRS are partnered with Coanda. Could Rogers, DeJong and the other Coanda racers have been pulled from PESC to help develop RENNSPORT?
Speaking of which, there’s also another major connection which can be made between RENNSPORT and another force in the world of esports racing: VCO.
It wouldn’t seem there’s anything binding them together officially. However, Competition Company, the devs behind RENNSPORT, share the building they operate from in Munich with VCO. Would it be too much of a stretch to say that when RENNSPORT becomes fully operational in 2023, VCO will be keen to host events using the sim?
But in terms of enlisting the services of an esports organiser, RENNSPORT have already partnered up with ESL Gaming to host their competitions. ESL are responsible for many high profile competitive gaming events such as ESL Pro League on Counter Strike: Global Offensive and the Dreamhack Starcraft 2 Masters. ESL have previously been involved in sim racing with the Live for Speed title.
“Digital” ownership
Now we’ve got to the one that has people talking for all the wrong reasons. What exactly does RENNSPORT mean by ‘real digital ownership’? To many, this statement hints towards NFTs. In this day and age, we’ve become all too accustomed to people talking about Non-Fungible Tokens but what are they? Ask your Crypto Cousin Chad, he will tell you they’re the future.
In short, a digital item on the internet that in order to claim ownership on, you have to purchase. As with many things, the value of NFTs is primarily about public perception. To many, they’re basically useless, and there are also environmental issues surrounding their creation. Because of all this, they are a controversial topic to say the least.
In any case, the RENNSPORT website claims it will leave it up to the players to trade items on the sim in their own ways, which is why a lot of people were feeling it was going to be NFT-related. But they do go on to say that modding will be an integral aspect of the game, so perhaps RENNSPORT could be going down the route of a CS:GO market, with trading of cars and skins.
Of course, that’s a whole other can of worms potentially, considering the controversy over lootboxes and CS:GO gambling sites in the past. Hopefully, if this is the direction RENNSPORT is headed, there won’t be any such issues.
However, the added aspect of creating cars, tracks, liveries among other things and being able to trade it on or sell it directly through the game could certainly foster a strong community of creative people with its modding support, which has sustained Assetto Corsa for many years.
What to expect
As per their website, RENNSPORT will be initially focussing on GT3 racing but don’t expect it to become another ACC with just GTs in the game. They intend to add more types of cars in the future, and that’s not the only area of expansion that Competition Company is targeting.
In a recent tweet, they hinted that RENNSPORT will one day make its way to consoles. In the sim racing space, there isn’t really a varied console title. Assetto Corsa was very poorly ported onto PS4 and Xbox One, and whilst ACC had a much better time being converted for usage on both Generations 8 and 9 consoles, it’s mainly because there’s far less content to have to port.
Could RENNSPORT be that first major high level racing simulator that console gamers can truly enjoy? It will certainly be visually stunning as the developers are working with Unreal Engine 5. Whether that means they can port the title to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S and not lose its performance and aesthetics, we don’t know but let’s remain hopeful for now. Console racers cannot be picky when they don’t get much in the way of racing sims to begin with.
Ultimately, it’s still very early days and with the closed beta opening up later this year before a full release in 2023, there’s plenty of time to get answers before anyone can expect to turn a wheel in anger on RENNSPORT.
What do you hope will be in RENNSPORT? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!
