A new Assetto Corsa game is planned for release next year.
This news come from MauroNL, who managed to grab a screencap of a half-year report from Assetto Corsa studio Kunos Simulazioni.
In MauroNL’s own words:
“The Assetto Corsa franchise has sold over 28 million units as of December 31, 2022. Revenues for the franchise have exceeded €104m since its inception in 2014.
The “second version” of Assetto Corsa is planned for a Spring 2024 release.”
Older gamers may think of Forza Motorsport or Gran Turismo as the older, venerable sim racing games in the industry, but Assetto Corsa, hitting a decade old next year, is on their level as one of the best in the genre.
The developers at Kunos Simulazioni grit their teeth on other sims like netKar Pro and Ferrari Virtual Academy, but what really put them in the road to success was the studio’s proximity to the Vallelunga Circuit, where they now literally hold offices in a pit garage.
While Polyphony and Turn10 have their own spin on how racing games should be played, Kunos focused on making Assetto Corsa as realistic a sim as possible. For this reason, Assetto does not have racing campaigns, and it doesn’t have you collecting cars from the poorest to the best.
Instead, you jump straight into whatever car you like, to one of the most extensively detailed simulations you can buy. Not only the graphics, but the physics of the vehicles, including the tires, were recreated with laser-scanning technology.
Assetto Corsa’s other big ace in the hole is extensive support for mods and peripherals. You can import your own 3D models of your own vehicles in the game, with a simply WYSIWYG editor. Furthermore, you can add your own widgets and plugins using the same languages and tools Kunos used to make the game, such as Python, C++, and C#.
Assetto Corsa’s peripheral support extends beyond mouse and keyboard, controllers, wheels, and triple displays, to VR, Nvidia 3D vision, TrackIR head tracking, and all matter of professional motion systems and disability aids. Kunos has built in disability assists in the game as well.
Assetto Corsa’s popularity led to Assetto Corsa Competizione, which is also by Kunos but is designed as an esports racing platform. As a result, Kunos used Unreal Engine 4 to add realistic weather, but still utilized their specialty in realistic sim racing.
If this new game goes by the name Assetto Corsa 2, it will actually be the third game in the franchise, but the second to adopt that realistic sim racing design. Fans will definitely be excited to see what Kunos Simulazioni will be able to do with a generational upgrade, that can utilize the full abilities of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
