First RENNSPORT Closed Beta keys are underway

The time has finally come to distribute access keys! Community members who are on the waitlist should check their inboxes if they are among the ones who got a key during this drop.

You may have already heard the big news over the weekend. In case you didn’t – are you ready for some big news?
 
Today is the day you have been waiting for patiently! It is finally time to start handing out Closed Beta keys for RENNSPORT! As promised for months, a spot on the Closed Beta waitlist was worth it. Over the next weeks, Closed Beta codes will be sent out to the wait list, keep an eye on your inbox for more information. 

This is how the distribution works

50% of the available keys will be distributed among the first ones that signed up to the waitlist. The other 50% of the key drop will be distributed to randomly chosen members of the whole waitlist. If you don’t receive a key right away you don’t need to worry as we are increasing the capacity in the upcoming weeks. 

You are not already signed up? Make sure to secure your spot and get a chance to receive a key with the next drop. Furthermore, it is also a good idea to already put RENNSPORT to your Epic Store wishlist.

During the second RENNSPORT Summit last weekend, our CEO Morris Hebecker presented the official trailer for the Closed Beta. We can’t stop watching it and still get goosebumps when we do. We let it speak for itself – make sure to check it out.

WHAT TO EXPECT

We will add more features over time during the next weeks and months, so please be aware that when you start racing not all of the features, cars and tracks will be unlocked immediately. Currently, you can experience the following:  

  • Game Mode: Single player
  • Cars: Porsche 911 GT3 R, BMW M4 GT3, Audi R8 LMS GT3 evo II, Mercedes-AMG GT3
  • Race tracks: Hockenheim Ring, Nürburgring, Spa-Francorchamps, Autodromo Nazionale Monza

Since the simulation is still in an early development phase, we want to make you aware that the Closed Beta is not the final product so some errors might appear while playing it. However, you are ALLOWED to publish in-game footage or any other content of the RENNSPORT Closed Beta.

We have a dedicated Closed Beta tester area on our Discord for all people who have received a key. Our development team is keen on proceeding with the valuable exchange about your impressions on there. We are happy to enter this exciting next chapter and are excited to create the future of virtual racing together!

More information coming soon!

Next milestone achieved – Successful online races of ESL R1

After the offline kick-off event in Katowice, the teams competed online for the next points of the season in some great online races. 

Some of you may have been following the first two rounds of ESL R1. The offline event was a true success and a good base to build upon. You can read our recap here. The feedback we received from you was overwhelmingly positive and demonstrated the entertainment value that we were able to deliver by streaming the offline event online. On March 10th and March 13th, we hosted Round 3 of ESL R1 online, and the race action was thrilling to watch. We hope you enjoyed witnessing the top racers competing against each other in their respective team headquarters. 

If you couldn’t join the streams, you can now re-live the action here:

This event was highly anticipated by both you and us, and as we’ve mentioned in previous communications, our team has been working tirelessly to provide stable online multiplayer races. We were confident that we could host online races on a decent level, but we needed the final approval that a competitive live race weekend provides. We took a full risk on Friday and Monday and were rewarded. We did our first successful step into the online-part of the season (Round 3 – Round 8). Our team has gained some valuable insights and is currently evaluating the technical data from the two days. We’re working hard to improve things and provide you with even more exciting rounds of the ESL R1 season online. In the next step, we’ll also focus on providing the same level of stability to you so you can experience RENNSPORT for yourselves. 

Multiple racers on stage during the ESL R1 kick-off in Katowice.

The combination of offline events and online races offers accessibility to virtual racing fans from all over the world. By bringing together well-known faces of the sim racing scene, such as Luke Crane, George Morgan, and Lewis McGlade, and adding interesting guests like Jasmine Kanuga “Veracity” to the online show, we aim to create an entertaining event for you to watch. Over the past race weekends, we’ve seen that this approach can engage many fans, and we’ve already achieved some great milestones on our ongoing esports journey. But we know we still have many more to take. The outcome was good – but not perfect. With each round of the season, we gain valuable insights and feedback from the teams that improve essential aspects of the game like drivability, force feedback, and graphics in RENNSPORT. Ultimately, all this will ensure the best possible racing experience as everything you will get your hands on will be tested and verified under real racing conditions. We’re excited to see what we can learn from the remaining season.

Together as a team, the ESL and us will work hard to improve every race weekend. Your feedbacks across all channels helps us to get a good feeling of what you want to see, and what not. We’re excited to have a great online season ahead of us hope to see you in the chat of the streams over and over again.

Don’t forget to check out the official ESL R1 website for updates on the season, and you can follow all the races on Twitch, YouTube, and TikTok. You can always view the current and updated leaderboard here, or within the RENNSPORT companion app.

Our development moves to the next stage

When we started the development of RENNSPORT in 2020, the first rounds we drove were powered by the Unreal Engine 4. During this time we gained a lot of valuable experience as well as first impressive results. A few months later we took the next step: Very early in our overall development plan we switched to the latest technology with Unreal Engine 5. Since then we pushed the limits in close collaboration with engine developer Epic Games and by benefitting from the know-how of leading car manufacturers as well as professional race drivers for the car physics simulation. With this technological and racing know-how advantage we are confident to lay a perfect foundation to make RENNSPORT the most realistic sim racing title.

With all the challenges we face every day having started from scratch and not having optimized an existing system will benefit us in the long run. Also our from day one on focus on Esports will help us to build a professional Esports world that sim racing enthusiasts have always been looking for.