- Rennsport will launch in Version 1.0 (PC) and consoles this month, with two tracks that were previously community-made mods for other platforms
- Its plans are to continue this theme, but also provide public tools for the creation and conversion of content
- For console players, they should expect further mods too, with Rennsport working on an approval process
Crest da Cauras and Orchard Road Street Circuit – these circuits were originally created by the sim racing community for a different sim racing title, but Rennsport has converted them into Unreal Engine 5, and they will be part of its launch track roster.
That means come 13th November, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S will be able to experience user-generated content on console, natively within the game.
But, was that really the Competition Company’s grand plan? Two circuit conversions?
Way back in 2022, I spoke to Co-CEO Morris Hebecker at a Munich launch event, and he talked of having a system to include licensed player-made cars in the then-nascent game at some point.
“The idea is to legalise modding through our platform and really give them a chance to monetise what they create,” he said at the time.
“Really, [part of the] idea is to have our licensing partners strongly involved where we could be that part in between to make it an official thing.”
A year later, again in Munich, Traxion colleague John Munro and I drove mods within Rennsport for the first time. The point-to-point routes showcased then, however, have been missing in action ever since.
The vision was clear: Provide the tools necessary to create, or convert from other games, cars and tracks for Rennsport.
However, priorities change, and in the past year (at least), it seems like making sure the Version 1.0 launch is across PC and console with cross-platform multiplayer has taken precedence.
Mods still remain a tenet of the plan, however.
“The [UGC] tools we are using at the moment, we plan to give these tools to the community as well, to make it easy to create the content,” explains Hebecker to Traxion, this time at Gamescom 2025, a few short months ahead of the platform’s release.
“It is for sure planned to take the good community-modded content and bring it to console.
“And then we will have to bring these mods into a kind of analysis system internally, because it’s not possible to have mods from the ‘outside world’ on console. So we have to moderate this whole process internally, [especially] when it comes to IP.”
The team seems undeterred that perhaps it revealed its ambitious console ‘UGC marketplace’ plans before others, and that it may be beaten to the punch by a key rival.
“This could open up the whole world for other partners like racetrack designers, so that they can bring in their racetracks they never built [in the real world] and show it here,” continues Hebecker.
“I won’t only be taking existing mods, but having the right tools ready that everyone can build in their own style.”
Mod creation should be straightforward
This all sounds well-intentioned, with the team keeping its cards close to its chest in terms of a feature rollout schedule.
“When I am able to use the tools and have fun with it, then we are ready,” explains Co-CEO Marco Ujhasi to Traxion.
“I am interested and ambitious, but not a very good modder, and so usability is key.
“[I think it’s] better to do it a bit later [than Version 1.0] and provide fun for the younger generation, my son is also helping to evaluate.
“[Release timing] is a bit unpredictable, to be honest, because also, as you can imagine, in the Unreal environment, things are still changing. We are with Unreal Engine 5.4 currently, I think, so we want to also have a certain stability there.
“Then we can build a stable technical base, usability and then we give [modding] to the people. It must be an easy thing [to mod], otherwise we believe the full potential is not there.”
Further conversions in progress
Once again, returning to the top of converting existing mods originally made for other platforms resurfaces.
This is already evidenced by the aforementioned November ‘25 launch venues, which Morris and the team proudly tout as “I think the first game bringing [racing] mods, user-generated content, to console.”
Further work is ongoing behind the scenes, with confirmation to Traxion that select partners are continuing to work as we speak.
“Right now, this is working,” continues Ujhasi.
“Then, the next step is that at a certain point, we [Competition Company] are not needed [as part of the conversion process] at all.
“But, as you can imagine, for tracks it’s one thing, but we are obviously not limited to the tracks, but [mods will also be made] for the cars also. So we need to have that in place, as it’s a longer chain to do it properly and not to kill it before it really starts.”
“The requirements for the content you put in on a PlayStation are way higher than on PC, so we also need to have solutions in place to be able to do that in a proper way,” added Rennsport’s Creative Director, Kim Orremark.
Grand plans, indeed. We’ve heard much of this before, but leaving early access and launching on console devices was considered by some naysayers to be an impossibility. Yet, it will happen just days from now, so it would be foolish to write off Rennsport’s cross-platform mod integration plan just yet…
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