The announcement has just been made, and Rennsport, the racing simulation game developed by Competition Company and Teyon, will go into open beta on the Epic Game Store on July 10.

Rennsport, as I just mentioned, has been in development since 2022, and in closed beta since late 2023. The studios distributed access codes only to a very specific audience of sim-racers. All this to say that finding a Rennsport access code was more or less mission impossible in France. But fortunately for us, that’s about to change thanks to the open beta.

What’s new in this open beta

First of all, let’s get technical. The purpose of this beta is to test Rennsport’s server infrastructure, to see if the equipment can handle the thousands of players before the title’s official launch. This means that there will be no real changes from the closed beta, apart from a few additions here and there.

So, on the open beta menu: 24-car starting grids, multi-class races, a few night tracks and refuelling, tire changes and race repairs. As far as the last point is concerned, from what I understand, this feature will be in the test phase, so it will be very basic in its operation, and in its implementation too.

As for the tracks, there are those already present in the closed beta, such as SPA, Monza, Daytona, the Nurb GP, and so on. However, one notable addition has been made to the open beta, and that’s the Nordschleife. I can immediately imagine the 26 km of forest track becoming the scene of a Death Race for anyone with little experience of the green inferno.

As far as the cars are concerned, there’s nothing new compared with the closed beta. We’ll find the BMW M4 GT, Porsche 911 GT3 R (992), Mercedes-AMG GT3 2020, Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, Praga R1, Audi RS3 LMS 2022 and Hyundai Elantra N TCR. As far as I’m concerned, that’s not bad for mainstream access, but I’m expecting a lot more by the time the final sim-racing title is released.

The last point to mention, but one that wasn’t present in the trail, is Rennsport’s VR support. For the moment, nothing is yet official about virtual reality support for this sim-racing game. But I can’t imagine the studios not implementing this in their title, especially when we know that the next Assetto Corsa will not only integrate VR, but also multi-screen setups, and natively at that. My guess is that VR won’t be present in the open beta, but should be available on the final version of the game, either on Day-1, or via a patch along the way.