The good news – Rennsport is entering an open beta for the first time next week. Even better, the much-requested Nürburgring Nordschleife will be added alongside two GT4 cars and yet another fast Porsche.
The somewhat complicated news – Rennsport is offering what it terms as founders packs, ranging from ~€20 to €70, and it’s where some of the latest content resides.
Let’s dive into the details.
Founder’s Packs
Rennsport was first showcased to the world in 2022. There was a website, followed by a lavish May Munich event. Sooner or later, it needed to switch from being completely free to earning some revenue.
How the upcoming sim racing game is handling this is by the use of ‘Founder’s Packs’ – something seen elsewhere in gaming for the likes of Fortnite or Disney Speedstorm.
These will be in three tiers, for the following prices and including the following:
Gold Founder’s Pack – €19.99
● Early Access to the Nürburgring Nordschleife:
● Car Purchase Token
● Golden Founder’s Pack Badge
Platinum Founder’s Pack – €39.99
● Porsche GT3 R rennsport with exclusive eVIN
● Nürburgring Nordschleife
● Platinum Livery
● One Car Purchase Token
● Gold, and Platinum Founder’s Pack Badges
● Your Name on a Race Track – Billboard
Diamond Founder’s Pack – €69.99
● Porsche GT3 R rennsport with exclusive eVIN
● Nürburgring Nordschleife
● Diamond Dynamic Livery
● Platinum Livery
● Two Car Purchase Tokens
● Gold, Platinum, and Diamond Founder’s Pack Badges
● Your Name on a Race Track – On Track
The Platinum and Diamond packs include credit/s for cars in the future, not yet confirmed or released. They also include visual customisation trinkets and your name immortalised as an early backer on either a trackside billboard or the asphalt itself.
Presumably, the cash generated from these will be used to help fund future development.
The latest 911 variant and Nordschleife are only for those who purchase one of these tiers.
Nürburgring Nordschleife
Yes, you read that correctly, the Nordschleife is only available if you purchase one of the packs (during the beta period, at least).
From the trailer, the Green Hell does look visually arresting – noting that footage is ‘in-engine’ and not ‘in-game’.
All existing content, such as the Nürburgring Grand Prix, Road Atlanta, Orchard Road, GT3 cars, TCRs and the Porsche Cup (plus others) are included for everyone who downloads the open beta.
Porsche 911 GT3 R rennsport
We make this 911 derivation the fifth Porsche in Rennsport, the Stuttgart marque making up 35 per cent of the roster. Huh.
This is a track-only extreme version (in-game engine image, top of page), making its gaming debut with 620 hp, a sequential gearbox and a dramatic aero kit that harks back to some older Porsche race cars.
Two new GT4 cars
- BMW M4 GT4
- Audi R8 LMS GT4
The ubiquitous GT4 category makes its Rennsport debut with the BMW M4 GT4 and Audi R8 LMS GT4.
Mercifully, these two specifically are not part of any founder’s pack exclusivity, so anyone who downloads the open beta can fire these up.
VR
Virtual reality is also here with the next update – although strongly prefaced with the ‘beta’ tag.
“There is going to be more work to be done with VR, of course,” said Lead Game Designer, Kim Orremark.
Beta Update 1.9 tweaks
Aside from the new pricing options and content, comes a host of platform updates for all players. These are expected to be announced with a changelog published on its 10th July release date.
What we do know presently is that an experience point system will be implemented. The more you drive, the more XP you earn and then level up. In the future, there is a plan to pay out some form of rewards with certain levels.
The online ranking system is also said to have been revised. Still using an Elo-based system, but with Bronze to ‘Master’ levels over the top.
Monza and Daytona will now feature day-to-night cycles, gamepad gameplay has been revised and being able to find and follow friends with the companion app should be possible.
Future Stuff
Alongside what is arriving next week, the Rennsport team teased further additions expected down the road.
One was a ‘founders track’, a fictional venue in the shape of the Rennsport game logo on an island. Thunderbirds are go…
This follows the meme track 8eta, a figure-of-eight circuit already in the title. This is the location where Diamond-level founders will appear. The track will be available for everyone, once complete.
A release on Steam was also discussed (“Steam is very important to us,” Rennsport CEO Morris Hebecker) but with no timeline, the same for triple screen support.
