Despite its age, Assetto Corsa is more popular than ever. Last month, the revered racing simulator broke a new player record on Steam over ten years after its release. Steep discounts and excitement for Assetto Corsa Evo likely helped. However, one aspect that keeps players returning to Assetto Corsa is its exemplary mod support.
A wealth of community-created mods can be downloaded. This has allowed players to add new vehicle types never intended for Assetto Corsa, from school buses and cop cars to lawnmowers. You can even transform the racing simulation into an open-world city driving game with mods.
Since Assetto Corsa is one of the most popular PC racing games to mod, fans are wondering if Assetto Corsa Evo will have comparable mod support. While we don’t have a definitive answer yet, Kunos Simulazioni has hinted at what we can expect for mod support in Assetto Corsa Evo.
Kunos Simulazioni hints at mod support for Assetto Corsa Evo
Speaking to Traxion.GG, co-founder and executive manager Marco Massarutto revealed that “no decision has been made yet” regarding mod support for Assetto Corsa Evo, adding that it’s “definitely one of the open topics on the table.”
“Possibly, we may create a light editor like we did for the original Assetto Corsa so that people can contribute to content creation,” he added. If Assetto Corsa Evo does support modding, it will likely be stricter.
Car models are sometimes lifted from other games in Assetto Corsa mods, but Massarutto doesn’t want to see this continue in Evo.
“What we want to prevent this time is abuses in how some Assetto Corsa modding is being used because we don’t like to see stolen content from different sims,” he explained. “The vision behind modding is that it should let people express their talent and create their own content.”
“When someone grabs content from another game using third-party tools and they just put in the game or they sell it on third-party websites, it’s far against the vision we have for it. We believe that it also gives a bad perception of those people who spend a lot of time creating original content."
“This time, we want to see how we can support the good modders in a way that can create a synergy between the studio and the most talented creators.”
Massarutto concluded that Kunos wants to work with the modding community "in a more creative way in the future" and is "currently defining a strategy to do that in the proper way.”
Will Assetto Corsa Evo have a mod store?
It’s not clear yet what Massarutto’s vision for modding in Assetto Corsa Evo entails. With Evo still slated for a summer release this year, it’s also unclear if mod support will be offered at launch or until the final release.
Reading between the lines, some fans speculate that Kunos may launch a mod store and charge for community mods instead. While it sounds like Assetto Corsa Evo’s mod support will be stricter with Kunos approving third-party creations to avoid legal issues, it should result in better quality control.
How do you feel about Assetto Corsa Evo having stricter mod support? Let us know in the comments below.
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