Rennsport wants to fix its rocky launch by giving you “double the content, half the price”

It would be fair to say Rennsport’s launch on consoles and PC last year didn’t go, er, perfectly. Although it marked a new serious player in the sim racing space, it was also “light on content and plagued by bugs”, we remarked in our review at the time.

All’s not lost, though, because Competition Company has a cunning plan, and it involves giving you way more stuff and charging you less for it.

The price of the Deluxe Edition has been permanently cut by 45 per cent down to €38.49, which is lower than the Standard Edition. That basically means the Standard Edition is now redundant, and the Deluxe is the only one to consider.

What sweetens the deal further is that Deluxe Edition owners get all the paid content packs for free until September 2026. In addition to all that, Rennsport’s adding new content that’s free to everyone in monthly content packs.

If you bought a Deluxe Edition copy at launch for the previous price, you’ll be compensated with in-game items, says Competition Company.

The first of the premium content packs, which all Deluxe Edition owners will gain access to, is coming in March and adds the Porsche 911 GT1, Mercedes-Benz CLK LM, Porsche 956, Peugeot 9X9 EVO and the Le Mans circuit. Can you spot the theme there?

In tandem, March’s free update adds the Hyundai N Vision 74 and Kuala Lumpur Street Circuit, plus new layouts for Road Atlanta and Fuji.

And so it continues through the year, including a substantial update to the game’s AI opponents in May. AI was a clear weakness at launch which took offline career mode racing off the table because your rivals were either suicidally reckless through high-speed corners, or unfathomably slow in the opening lap. Or both. Usually both, actually.

This substantial AI rework will give your fellow racers “smarter situational awareness,” says Rennsport, giving them the ability to “defend intelligently and execute overtakes more realistically."

Rennsport has now officially parted ways with publisher Nacon. We wouldn’t want to speculate on that, and no further details have been given about the nature of the split.

We’ve played those new upcoming cars and tracks, and we’ll say this: Rennsport has a real shot as the successor to Assetto Corsa Competizione’s online racing. It just needs to execute as it has outlined through the next year.