Kunos’ new one: “Assetto Corsa Competizione” [Updated]

We all knew that the time had come for Kunos to re-work their smashing success in the world of simulations.

According to their press release, it’s going to be called “Assetto Corsa Competizione” and will be available on Steam early access this summer. It’s also going to be the official game of the Blancpain GT series, so expect a lot of GT3 content.

The “competizione” (which – you guessed it – means ‘competition’) part of it will come because allegedly players will be able to “compete against official drivers, teams”.

The sim will be using the Unreal Engine 4 and for now they are promising we will be able to drive “Ferraris, Lamborghinis, McLarens and many other prestigious GT cars” (Yep, they specifically mention GT cars, and none other)

WAIT! There’s more…

At the end of the early access phase, the Sim should offer multiplayer and single player gaming including a “highly intelligent” ranking system (of which we expect Serta to make the lower tenth…) including a way to “promote fair play in online competitions” and an “[e]fficient matchmaking”. Here’s hoping it works much better that it does in Project Cars 2…

Aaaaaand: YES! it will bring a “dynamic weather system”, and as they are talking about including endurance races (it’s Blancpain after all) we can expect to see light changes from day to night and vice-versa.

Of course, their new Sim will include “accurate circuits”, which Kunos have very much shown they are capable of delivering already with Assetto Corsa and “photorealistic” graphics and audio. And while Assetto Corsa did not have the best graphics possible, we at WromWrom.net agree graphics and sound in Assetto Corsa are already top notch. So we are quite sure Kunos can deliver here also.

The press release does not mention if the game will be as Mod-friendly as Assetto Corsa is. Here’s hoping it is, as the amount of mods for Assetto Corsa make that game an evergreen in the world of sims.

Nor is there talk about VR support, but with Assetto Corsa supporting already the Oculus Rift as well as Microsoft’s so called “mixed reality”, we can expect “Competizione” to continue in that vein. And as for now they only talk out a PC release. Those of you using consoles will have to wait…

The downside is that they are using a complete new engine, so they won’t be able to build on what is already there in Assetto Corsa … nor will modders.

So, dear petrolheads, what dou you think? Do you expect Kunos to deliver on the expectations? Do you expect them to make the game as moddable as Assetto Corsa is? Would you buy a sim concentrated on one specific set of cars?

Let us know in the comments below!

[UPDATE] Kunos has made it clear in their forums that they will NOT support modding of “Competizione”, but will not stand in the way of anybody publishing mods. The reason seems to be they do not have enough programmers for that. They have also made it clear that the development of Assetto Corsa has conclude and everybody at Kunos is working on “Competizione”.