The day has finally arrived, as Assetto Corsa EVO launches on Steam Early Access. As with any new game, there have been a few issues with servers overloading, and Kunos Simulazioni have already released version 0.1.1 to enable all of the 20 initial cars to be drivable in offline mode, rather than the original six starting vehicles you would normally have to choose from.
Pricing for the Early Access version of Assetto Corsa EVO is £32.99, reduced to £26.39 until the end of January 2025. For that you initially get access to practice sessions and quick races on the five available circuits. Those events can also include set or dynamic weather.
Along with your driver profile, there’s an Academy which allows you to earn medals and unlock licenses to access faster racing series, along with special events, and a game economy based around buying cars from the in-game dealership and customising them. Unfortunately these areas of Assetto Corsa EVO have been impacted by the initial server issues, but should be available pretty soon.
It seems a little odd that licenses and progression in single player requires a server connection, but hopefully that will be resolved soon. And most online titles seem to have a few teething problems in the first 24 or 48 hours as thousands of people suddenly start connecting for the first time. Especially with a very Early Access version of the racin sim which has been eagerly awaited by a lot of people.
Issues with the driving academy are a little unfortunate, as it further limited the options available for those jumping onto the sim at launch, especially a number of streamers etc. But Kunos Simulazioni have released an Early Access Roadmap which indicates some of the new content and features coming soon, although they’ve sensibly not tied it to any exact dates yet.
In the near future, this will include Content Drop 1 coming soon with 2 new cars, new special events, and Fuji Speedway. And then a 2nd Early Access Release with five more cars, the Circuit of the Americas, single player and cusom race weekend functionality, replay tools and gallery, and step 2 in both the VR and Triple Screen support.
Perhaps most exciting is that we know the Free Roaming Eifel region is intended to arrive in Summer 2025, but before that there’s a 3rd Early Access release for ‘Multiplayer’, and another unspecified Content Drop 2. So some time between now and Summer, we’ll get online multiplayer racing, which should give a much better idea of how Assetto Corsa EVO will compare to other sim racing titles.
The full Version 1.0 is pencilled in for ‘Fall 2025’, with 100 vehicles, 15 circuits, photo mode, driver avater customisation along with the cars, car tuning, and more complete versions of the single and multiplayer modes, game economy, and support for VR and triple screens etc. And while 100 cars isn’t a massive amount, it’s more than enough for v1.0 as long as they’re the right cars, especially as we still don’t know yet about any modding support or functionality.
If you’re keen to jump in at the first opportunity, you can buy Assetto Corsa EVO for the PC on Steam now. And you can keep up with the latest news and updates here, along with all the content releases via our car list and track list.
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