It’s been 8 (eight) long years since the Early Access version of Assetto Corsa was released on Steam. Many of us were waiting for the first full game development from a studio like Kunos Simulazioni that had shown its ability to reflect the real world in titles like Net Kar Pro and other demos made specifically for Italian car brands.
Assetto Corsa was a bit of a milestone in the world, revisiting and updating the formula that rFactor had first set out 7 years earlier and legitimising the development of content through the addition of mods. This together with its low price made it easily adopted in many places and its good performance and huge adaptability (VR, triples, apps, overlays, etc.) contributed greatly to its fame.
So much so that the title is still very much alive today, relatively reminiscent of GTA V, albeit with significant differences in the studio’s treatment. Kunos (which was taken over by Digital Bros) has long found Assetto Corsa Ultimate to be a bit of a pain in the arse, with sales not leading to increased profits and in turn maintaining a player base that doesn’t quite make the switch to Assetto Corsa Competizione, something far more desirable for its flow of DLC and controlled, licensed content.
It is curious because on several levels Assetto Corsa Ultimate is still running with support from manufacturers such as Ferrari, racing networks such as simracing.gp or in mobile conversions. The future indicates that Assetto Corsa 2 could be a return to the origins when it comes to concept and approach, allowing us to retake all the freedom that Assetto Corsa allowed but with the advances of 10 years of hardware and software improvements.
See you on the track!
