This morning, before I made the weekly pilgrimage to my newsletter-writing café, I recorded this week’s episode of the Traxion Control Podcast with Tom and John. Clearly, a lot of the focus was on 505 Games and Kunos Simulazione’s recent announcement concerning the abandonment of “XP, virtual currency, and economy-based progression”.

The full statement, and our analysis, can be found on the Traxion Website.

The news has really divided opinion. Some claim that this decision strips AC EVO of its identity, dilutes its original vision and betrays early access buyers in the process.

Others say this is the right move, offering the development team space to build their ambitious free roam mode whilst not losing focus on what made original Assetto Corsa a roaring success 13 years ago: physics, modability and competitive play.

I am in the latter camp:

Unsurprisingly however…

(See my email newsletter from last week to read about how I feel about how people in our cosy little sim racing community treat each other)

Early Access is about exploration right? It’s a chance for developers to craft a game with their community and players. It’s a unique opportunity to test concepts, ditching those that don’t work along the way.

I have always considered the vision of Assetto Corsa EVO to be the lovechild of Gran Turismo, Forza Horizon and OG Assetto Corsa, a power-throuple if ever there was one.

Sprinkle the genes of Gran Turismo’s focus on car culture; Forza Horizon’s free roam and Assetto Corsa’s original physics and force feedback models and you have a very exciting prospect indeed. In my opinion, this recent announcement does not suggest a deviation away from any of those core principles so personally, I remain excited for this game’s future.

To my mind, XP, virtual currency, and economy-based progression are just mechanisms, not gameplay features in themselves. Whilst it’s true that Gran Turismo, arguably the most successful racing franchise of all time, has always opted for a currency-based progression system, that’s doesn’t mean it is an inherently necessary shackle, eternally tethered to the creation of a gameplay loop that pays homage to car culture.

The thing is - I could be wrong. I could be being “******* dumb”…

However, the decision has been made by the creators of one of the best racing games of all time. A team of genuine car fanatics who live for this game and for this industry. They, more than any of us, will have dived deep into the knock-on effects of this decision, assessing what it means for their beloved creation.

As I conceded to John Munro in this week’s Traxion Control podcast, I could be being hopelessly and naively optimistic - I, like you, want this game to be a success.

Perhaps, to be an insufferable observer of silver lines, the strength of emotion in gamers’ reactions to this, relatively minor announcement, only goes to show the depth of love the community has for the name “Assetto Corsa”.

Late last night, Kunos Simulazioni announced the latest batch of new content included in the 0.5 release, coming this Thursday: seven new cars and two new tracks.

We’ve all been there, you spend 2 hours making the race poster for Facebook, you agonise over the server settings, you’re ready to broadcast your race on YouTube and then only 6 drivers turn up.

Install the Grid Finder Discord bot for free to manage sign ups, send reminders and post your results in your discord server.

If you’ve ever read a Traxion.gg article, you’ll know that the writers over here all have very distinct voices and opinions. It’s this character and sound that I think makes Traxion special.

Human creation is becoming a rare commodity with which the media seem to trade less and less. But not at Traxion. We don’t use AI to write our articles on the website, and I pledge to you, that I will never use AI to write this newsletter.