The mood is cautious optimism.
I’m in Munich and it’s a literal blizzard outside. I’ve not seen snow this deep since I visited Sweden in wintertime, as I plough through in decidedly unsuitable footwear.
The industrial Kohlebunker venue served as a depot for the German Federal Railway until 1995. In the sim racing fraternity, it is perhaps best known for the 2022 launch event for Rennsport.
That was strange. A new game is one thing, but a new game from a startup company with a strange website hinting at digital ownership is quite another. It was interpreted as a platform for ‘non-fungible’ items, somehow baked into a driving simulation, with grand plans to dominate esports.
Nearly four years ago, this led to the now infamous “It’s not a f*****g NFT game” line from Co-CEO Morris Hebecker. This remains my favourite quote published on Traxion.
Returning to the same location for another Rennsport-hosted event feels like a full-circle moment.
The vibe is different in 2026. Back then, competition (or ‘the sporting’ in Rennsport parlance) seemed like a priority for the embryonic outfit. Now, that’s not necessarily the case (although the R1 competition still exists), in the face of a declining esports market and the cessation of partnerships with both ESL and the Esports World Cup.
However, a last-minute pivot to release on consoles seems to have saved some face.
“It was a very demanding technical challenge, cross-platform and also on short notice, with the console decision to squeeze everything in,” says the other Co-CEO, Marco Ujhasi, to Traxion.
“Long story short, from a technical and from a team perspective, performance was good.
“[Consoles] were worth [it] because we saw the gap in the market there and it paid off. Honestly, [the release] on console didn’t go too badly. We have to catch up a lot on PC, but on console, it was an okayish start.”
Ujhasi also confirmed that the PlayStation 5 is Rennsport’s most-played platform.
It’s been through a tough gestation period, followed by a rocky launch. “This was, how to say, chaos,” notes Ujhasi, referring to the pre-release rush.
“Of course, there was a lot of tension because everybody wants to do well, and at a certain point you need to say, ‘Okay, this is what we launch [with]’. And as you can imagine, it’s not just a few days before the launch, because with all the certification process on console, there’s a certain lead time.
“You know already that work is not done, but we need to submit.
“Of course, nobody was happy to see the comments at the beginning, but what I told the team is that they can be proud. Especially in that phase, many titles never even launch. Plus, our platform worked technically okay or even good to start with.”
Following a series of rapid-fire updates towards the end of 2025, the mood in this German room is one of composure. Such assuredness perhaps wouldn’t have been the case four months ago at the SimRacing Expo, where the platform showcased its single-player racing for the first time, only to receive critical feedback about its performance.
Now, though, there’s a defined plan that seems both realistic and honest.
“The last time we released an AI, it probably shouldn’t ever have seen the world,” says Lead Gameplay Programmer, Rikard Häggström.
“It had to sort of come together in a fairly short period of time. It is more or less a prototype, I would say. When you do that, you sort of easily end up in a situation where you make decisions on the way that maybe aren’t perfect for sustainability.
“We’re now in a position where we have to rewrite it for it to work.”
The current plan is to implement the new AI system later this year, which looked promising during a hands-off demonstration.
When asked if there is an energised creation team and the financial backing to ensure this strategy is delivered, Ujhasi is clear in his response.
“100% for both.”
Among the upcoming content, Sebring and Laguna Seca as free content seem like a boon, and paid DLC will add classic vehicles to break up the currently ubiquitous contemporary content.
Later, community-created mod circuits will start to exist, which will be, like its multiplayer, cross-platform.
“A colleague told me something when I entered motorsport,” explains Ujhasi, who worked at Porsche for over 18 years before pivoting to sim racing.
“The most important thing is that you sit down after a race with your team, and you make an assessment. What was good, what was not good.
“If you had a good performance, yes or no? This is the first thing you need to answer with your team. If you can establish such a culture and then take the feedback, take the criticism to go forward, then you have forged something together. And this is the [current] mood and the attitude [at Competition Company].
“We [formed] a brutally good team with very talented and motivated people while we were developing a product. Having all that ready after a relatively short time is pretty cool.”
There is plenty to be optimistic about then. However, a few days before this gathering, I was made aware that Rennsport and its PlayStation and Xbox publisher, Nacon, had parted ways. During the event, however, this wasn’t public information, so while on the outside the team seemed bullish, behind the scenes, there must have been frantic discussions.
It took a few days for this to become clear, following the insolvency of the French gaming giant, with the sim platform making its own announcement, confirming that it will self-publish on consoles.
The problem is that it’s taking longer than expected. Four weeks ago, it confirmed that the next update and DLC content were “complete”, but that it would be moving its release from March to April due to “the logistics of transitioning to self-publishing on consoles.”
As we go to press on this piece, there is still no word on a date. I do expect that to change sooner rather than later, however.
It seems like Rennsport has a clear vision of what it would like to achieve now, and an honest view of its current shortcomings. But, as it stands, it hasn’t been able to release a single meaningful game update this year, hamstrung by politics. As the clock continues to tick, momentum is being lost.