Yesterday, Marco joined our Editor-In-Chief, Tom Harrison-Lord, for a Traxion-exclusive interview to address the ever growing backlash to Kunos Simulazioni’s decision to scrap in-game currency and XP.

On the wall behind Marco hung two posters. One, the cover art from Assetto Corsa, the other, cover art from Assetto Corsa Competizione. It was a poignant reminder that we were about to hear from an industry-hardened veteran responsible for two of the most successful sim racing titles of all time.

Marco offered us a lot in the way of detail, explanation, justification and illustration of just what we could expect in lieu of the aforementioned abandoned features. But throughout this interview was weaved a golden and unbroken thread of nods, suggestions, hints and reminders that all implied:

We have earned your trust, now we ask to cash it in.

If the game, Sim Racing Game Studio Tycoon were a thing, you might say that Kunos is now spending the XP it had earned from AC and ACC…

The first portion of the interview tackled the recent announcement about the shake up of the single player roadmap. It felt pretty well rehearsed and so naturally, you have to read between the “lines to take” and the PR bumph.

My take is simple. Only by dropping a hugely complex, backend-heavy in-game currency and XP system, could Kunos muster the resources to do justice to the “core pillars” that make Assetto Corsa what it is.

They giveth modding and faster development of free roam (with interactive locations, AI traffic, special courses).

They taketh in-game currency and XP.

Marco gave some incredibly interesting insights into how the nature of running a sim racing studio has changed since the launch of Assetto Corsa (1) in 2014.

One particular train of thought really struck me.

Marco made the point that not only are sim racing titles more complex to create, demands from gamers are far higher, systems are more complex and licences are more expensive and difficult to obtain.

This collection of circumstances overlay starkly with the reality that gamers now have more choice and more demands for their attention. Keeping a user’s attention on a single title is now harder than ever.

Essentially, studios have to work much harder, for a much smaller return.

It’s not difficult to argue that the logic of the decision is sound - everything comes with an opportunity cost after all. But, the hype for Assetto Corsa' EVO’s early access release last year was unlike anything else I can remember.

With hype comes expectation.

And in this case, the expectation was well documented by the studio itself. Kunos made the perhaps misguided decision to publish their roadmap.

Whilst publishing their intended roadmap isn’t a contract, those who purchased early access copies of the game based on those plans are well within their rights to be upset if the feature they were most excited for is later dropped.

It's also a timely reminder than no matter how much credibility you have built up over the years, one false move, and the community will rightly hold you to account.

Watch the full interview here 👇

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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.