Can we ban brands from using the word “ecosystem” when they announce new sim racing gear, please? At least until they can be trusted to use it responsibly. I’ve played with a fair few of the best racing wheels for PC, and it feels as though every time new gear comes along it’s with the promise of an expanding range of extras and add-ons “in the future”.
“Start with the basics and expand over time as your racing habits evolve and your wallet recovers,” that sort of thing. Which is great, in theory. It’s a logical plan for both company and player, but the problem is this never seems to be a promise anyone keeps.
There is an emerging exception to the trend though, and it’s from an unlikely place: Nacon.
Likely known to most people for its range of controllers and peripherals, including the excellent Revolution X Unlimited, it launched its dedicated sim racing brand with some success last year. The Revosim RS Pure bundle: a 9Nm direct drive wheelbase, round wheel, and load cell pedals for £699/$799, undercut plenty of the established names on price while largely matching them on build quality and performance. It was a strong debut in isolation, but it also followed the ecosystem script with immediate talk of not just what was here now, but what was to come in the future.
Arguably, Nacon was even more brazen than others, as the wheelbase shipped with connection points on the back labelled “shifter” and “handbrake”, but that hardware didn't exist yet and didn’t even have a release date at the time. Just a promise that it was on the way before the end of 2025. It wasn’t a promise Nacon kept initially, but the best part of a year later, backup did arrive, and what landed is actually rather good. The Revosim RS Pure Hybrid Shifter, Load Cell Handbrake, and Clutch Pedal filled in those empty slots on the back of the wheelbase and completed the initial picture.
But this is territory we’ve been in before.
Turtle Beach made it this far with the VelocityOne range and has gone MIA since. The Race wheelbase arrived in early 2024, and it too was complemented by a Multi-Shift shifter and handbrake. Then, eighteen months on, a second wheelbase joined the range, and the F-RX Formula wheel arrived with it. Things were looking good. The F-RX in particular is lovely; in fact, it’s one of the nicer wheel rims I've used and was proof that Turtle Beach had the know-how to compete. But since then, nothing. Turtle Beach's next round of simulation hardware announcements went to flight sim gear instead. Racing got two good years, and seemingly that is that.
Thrustmaster is guilty too, albeit in a different way. It’s a major name in sim racing and has kept releasing hardware on a pretty consistent cadence. The problem is the EVO Racing Hub was entirely pitched as the start of something, a hub designed to take an assortment of swappable rims and modules. I tested it at launch in early 2024, and both the hub and 32R Leather wheel were solid. Thrustmaster told me more rims were coming soon and the little pictures on the box suggested the same, but it wasn’t until a couple of months ago that two more rims and a paddle set quietly appeared on the website.
So far, Nacon's Revosim bundle only seems to be available in the UK and Europe via Nacon's own website. In the UK, stock has opened up at Argos, which is handy, but the expansion bundles are very slow to release to other retailers. Hopefully US stock becomes a more frequent thing soon, because Nacon's onto a winner here.
Nacon Revosim RS Pure Bundle: £699.99 at Argos
And that lands us at Nacon's newest move: the Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team customization kit for the RS Pure. It's aimed at a completely different kind of driver than the brand’s recent shifter and handbrake; it’s formula racing rather than rally or GT, and it’s not a huge headline piece, either. In an RPG it’s a side quest, but it’s an interesting one that fleshes out the world with depth and interest. The kit includes a new formula-style rim, carbon fiber shifter paddles, and a few Aston Martin-themed design touches, along with some gloves if that’s your thing.
It’s all good gear. I ran it mostly in F1 25 with some time in Forza Horizon 6, and found the open-wheel shape much more to my taste than the round wheel the RS Pure ships with. The carbon paddles are a nice upgrade, and even as a McLaren man, I liked the added flair of British Racing Green and shocking, highlighter yellow. None of this makes the Aston Martin kit essential. But it's well-made and adds an extra dimension for a specific kind of racer; it adds choice to the range, and that’s the point of an ecosystem of compatible gear. Not everything has to be a big new addition. Just keep iterating, keep adding, show me this is actually a range you’re supporting and that it’s worth me investing in and building my setup around.
Nacon is on to something with the Revosim range, but the real test now is what comes next and when.
We’ve already been told what’s coming and they’re marquee pieces. The RS Initiale and RS Lite, new mid-range and entry-level Direct Drive bundles that bring RevoSim to console for the first time. That brings another layer of complexity because cross-platform compatibility is a minefield and Nacon hasn’t yet detailed what from the existing range will work where. But it’s also a huge expansion point, and if Revosim can continue this momentum and successfully land the jump from PC to console, then we might finally have a sim racing ecosystem worthy of the word.
For more, check out the best PC controllers, best PS5 controllers, and best Xbox Series X controllers.
