Early Access Launches September 3 — and Here's Update 0.5.0

Early Access Launches September 3 — and Here's Update 0.5.0

After two years of solo development, a closed alpha and a free demo, The Undercut: Racing Manager enters Steam Early Access on Wednesday 3 September 2026 at 9:00 CET. The build heading there is 0.5.0 — Partners & Rivals — the biggest update the game has ever had. The free demo is updated with the same build right now.

📅 Mark the Date

• Release: Wednesday 3 September 2026

• Time: 9:00 CET (Paris / Berlin)

• Where: Steam — Windows, Linux, Mac, Steam Deck

Wishlist now — a wishlist is what tells Steam to email you the moment the game goes live.

⭐ What's New in 0.5.0 — Partners & Rivals

Partners With Expectations

Signing a deal used to be the end of the story. Now it's the beginning.

• Sponsor money is partly variable — every race pays out according to that sponsor's satisfaction

• Every sponsor and supplier sets a per-race target scaled to the brand's stature. Beat it and happiness climbs. Miss it and it drops.

• How a contract ends matters. A happy brand gives you a head start on renewal. An angry one refuses to talk for 1–5 seasons.

• Account management — park marketing work units on any partner to absorb bad-weekend dissatisfaction or court unsigned brands for a head start

R&D Overdrive

Parts whose potential reaches past 100 performance points can now be developed there. The blue band (100–150) costs double. The purple band (150+) costs quadruple. AI teams follow their financial personality — aggressive managers pay the premium, conservative ones never do.

Free Practice, Run Your Way

The Start Stint overlay lists runs from your plan — pick one, tweak tyres, fuel, laps and engine map. Programs pay off now: Quali and Race sims sharpen pace, and Dev Program runs add development potential to a part of your choice.

Top Speed Is Earned

Each car's ceiling now derives from its engine horsepower and chassis development — roughly 320 km/h in season 1, climbing toward 372 km/h as the grid develops.

🛠️ Modding Tools — In the Main Menu

Two experimental editors ship with Early Access:

• Circuit Editor — freehand-draw a track or trace it from an image, place markers, preview with the real race renderer, save as a mod circuit

• Mod Editor — replace or extend teams, drivers, sponsors, suppliers, define a full calendar from your own circuits, or create an Imposed scenario where the player takes over an existing team at race 1

Both are full-game only — they ship in Early Access precisely because they need your feedback.

🌍 Full Localization

Complete translations in French, German, Spanish, Italian and Brazilian Portuguese — hot language switching, translated commentary and emails. Plus community language packs: drop a translation file into mods/lang/ and it shows up in Settings.

🎮 Gamepad & Steam Deck

Menus, career UI and modals are fully playable on a pad — stick navigation, A/B confirm and cancel, shoulder-button tabs, on-screen keyboard. The Steam Deck launch crash is fixed.

AI With Intentions

• Rivals follow individual commercial doctrines — different sponsor targets, partnership-vs-client choices

• AI teams manage money through pluggable financial models — downgrades, equity sales and loans

• AI rivals actually develop again, funded from their real R&D capacity

• Supplier brands can withdraw, return or newly enter the series between seasons

🐛 The Big Fix

The GPU memory leak is dead. Logo baking leaked ~2 MB per logo — 5.6 GB over a 73-minute session, enough to bring a machine down. Fixed at the render-engine root with an always-on watchdog. Plus: async saves (no more 10–20s Windows freeze), pit stop replays, correct Safety Car behaviour, and dozens more.

What Early Access Means Here

The core game is finished and already good for dozens of hours: a full career, physics-driven races, procedural circuits, a living economy of sponsors and suppliers. Early Access exists so the rest gets built with the people playing it — the roadmap after launch is shaped by what the community actually runs into. It is not a paid beta of an empty shell. It's a complete career sim that intends to keep growing.

Try It Now

The free demo is updated with the 0.5.0 build. If you've been waiting for the right moment to try The Undercut, this is it. Play the Demo · Wishlist the Full Game · Join Discord See you on September 3. 🏁