It'd be silly to claim that the racing game niche is anything but sprawling at this time. Heck, if you need recommendations, we've got you covered right here, right now! Yet, it's equally silly not to take into account that some genre highlights, like the phenomenal Assetto Corsa, are now a decade old. This is where Assetto Corsa EVO comes into the picture, or so we hope.

Right off the bat, it's important to note that Assetto Corsa EVO is almost a complete unknown at this time. The developer, Kunos Simulazioni, has held its cards close to its chest, and there's just no telling what comes next on this front.

Down below, we've summarized everything we know about EVO as of May 2024, and present some of our thoughts on what's what!

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Assetto Corsa EVO - Early Information Overview

To be perfectly fair, we've known that some type of an Assetto Corsa sequel would be coming out soon for some time now. Kunos Simulazioni has been pretty up-front about the fact that it's been working on an Assetto Corsa 2 for a while now, it's just that the information on this mysterious new project has been so ridiculously slim that there was nothing to talk about.

Now, though, things are happening. Kunos has stealthily been including references to its new game in Assetto Corsa (Competizione) DLC with the promise of a 2024 release window and the earliest mentions of an EVO subtitle. As the game's been in production for a while now, though, it follows that this is almost certainly a snazzier-sounding rebadge rather than an alternative offshoot.

In other words, we expect Assetto Corsa: EVO to be its own thing, rather than a highly focused offshoot, as Competizione was.

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When is AC: EVO coming out?

Kunos Simulazioni appears to be totally set on launching Assetto Corsa: EVO at some point in 2024! That's right: the hotly anticipated sequel to one of the best racing games of all time is coming out this year!

As this information has cropped up only very recently, around mid-May 2024, this means we're looking at a Q3 or Q4 release window. There are two different ways Kunos might wish to go about this: either the team stays silent and pulls off an impressive shadow-drop campaign, or we're about to see a substantial uptick in AC: EVO's marketing efforts in the coming weeks.

Certainly, it would be immensely impressive and satisfying to see a shadow drop, as happened with the widely acclaimed Hi-Fi Rush, but this is the less probable option in our book. Instead, we expect that Kunos will ramp up its marketing in a relatively short window of time, and as that happens, you can bet we'll be on top of press releases as they drop.

Is AC: EVO going to be closer to Assetto Corsa, or Competizione?

As Assetto Corsa: EVO is supposed to be a full-blooded sequel to 2014's Assetto Corsa, it by definition needs to differentiate itself from Competizione. We expect EVO to be an improved, upgraded version of the original down to its comprehensive car list, ourselves.

It's easy to understand why this would be the case, too: Competizione was always supposed to exist within the niche of a niche. Whereas the baseline Assetto Corsa enjoys a massive modding community that lets you turn the game into virtually any kind of driving experience you want, Assetto Corsa Competizione has been laser-focused on competitive GT racing, specifically.

In playing Competizione, you trade moddability, versatility, and a comprehensive car list for an improved physics model, hugely better graphics, an improved rule-set, better netcode, and other specialized goodies. We just don't see EVO doing that to such an extent short of generalized game upgrades. If this is to be a true sequel, it needs to deliver more than just a limited subset of GT racing. Kunos is bound to understand that, too.

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Can EVO revolutionize the racing niche anew?

Certainly, this is a difficult question to answer. Between Forza Horizon's almost total domination of the open-world racing niche, Forza Motorsport and Gran Turismo 7's hold on the simcade side of things, and an absolute glut of awesome genuine simulation-racers such as rFactor 2, Automobilista 2, and iRacing, eking out a new corner of the market is no small feat.

Heck, even a second standalone side-experience, like Competizione, might not fare all that well. AC: EVO's saving grace, then, lies in the fact that it is a full-fledged sequel to one of the best sim-racers of all time. If Kunos Simulazioni manages to tide over the modding community, too, then we will undoubtedly have something special on our hands.

Enough theorycrafting for the time being, then: stay tuned for more info on Assetto Corsa: EVO as soon as we have it - only here at 2Game!

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