With Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown coming up on its first anniversary in a few weeks, and its Season 4 update due to drop this week on July 23, developer KT Racing has given us a look into how things will be changing in its second year.
It’s been a bit of a troubled title, experiencing a very rough start that saw the always-online requirement backfire in a pretty major way, some very unpopular economy changes, and a delay in some of the planned content and features as KT scrambled to rescue it.
When we reviewed the title we found the general recipe actually quite refreshed, but myriad issues made it a frustrating and inconsistent thing to play — even when playing it was actually possible…
Season 4, previewed earlier this month, will introduce the key Casino feature from the series’ past as well as a number of changes and upgrades, but Year 2 is where the title is set to get back onto its feet. Let’s take a look at the details from the developer stream earlier today:
Table of Contents
- Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown: Year 2, Season 5
- Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown: Year 2, Season 6
- Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown: Year 2, Season 7
- Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown: Year 2, Season 8
- Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown: Year 3 & Beyond
Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown: Year 2, Season 5
Season 5 will get the second year underway when it arrives in October 2025, and there’s two relatively major changes coming as well as a new feature.
It’ll mark the debut of some upgrades to the KT Engine underpinning the game, with some major visual updates coming across all platforms. That’ll see new rendering for water — fortunately, for a game set on two islands — and lighting, particularly when it comes to shadows and dim lighting.
Other changes come by way of updated beach artwork, especially with regards to sea foam as the water laps over the shore. There’ll also be fewer rain puddles, only appearing in more prolonged and heavier rain periods.
More enhancements are also on the way, with KT Racing working on Intel’s XeSS and AMD’s FSR 3.1, though it’s not certain when support will be added.
The first of a planned three-stage economy improvement will be coming along in Season 5 too, in response to comments and complaints from players. This initial phase will be focused on income, increasing payouts across a good chunk of the game.
Players will see improvements in earnings from collectibles, discoveries, and places like speed traps, along with a revision to the free-roam FRIM rewards. Race payouts will be improved for players finishing in lower positions, while the rate of levelling and Solar Coin payouts will be increased by “at least” 50%. More Solar Coins are available from live events and the Crown Jewel races too.
A new feature in Season 5 will be the Taxi Missions, and they look set to be quite intriguing.
Naturally the concept should be pretty familiar — pick up a client and take them somewhere specific — but each has their own personality and requirements, so it’s not simply a case of getting there as fast as you can.
Some may not like you to break the law — driving on the wrong side of the road, speeding, and ignoring lights — while others may be in more of a hurry. A passenger may be unwell, and won’t like being thrown about (or involved in crashes), while others may have requests like opening the windows.
How you dress can affect the missions too, with a new “dress code” feature being implemented, and you might even engage in chatter with the client — and be careful not to give the wrong answers.
Attire gets another uplift in S5 too, with the Sharps/Streets clan clothing stores moving from menu-based to physical locations with walkable interiors. As for cars, KT Racing has confirmed the addition of the Aston Martin DBS Superleggera and DeTomaso P72 for the season.
Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown: Year 2, Season 6
While we can expect to see continued improvements under-the-hood, Season 6 is all about a community vote for a new feature.
Players will be given four choices of which event type to introduce in Season 6, with voting available online until August 4. The winning option will be implemented for the launch of S6, in January 2026, with the others possibly being reserved for a future season.
Adrenaline is a game mode that sees you driving around in as chaotic and high-speed manner as you can to raise a gauge off the end of its scale. Delivery is, as it sounds, the couriering of items about the map but with the intention of working collaboratively with other players. Detective will see you hunting for clues and tailing a suspect. Finally there’s Photography, which will send you to take snaps of specific locations; the official line is that this will add a photo mode improvement, though we wonder if that will arrive independently (largely because it ought).
More new car brands will arrive too, including Pagani — teased with a Huayra in the stream — though others are under wraps for now.
Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown: Year 2, Season 7
Changes to the online race modes are key to Season 7 in April 2026, which will see the addition of a new location called the Official Racing Center (ORC), sited at the Hippodrome on Hong Kong Island.
The ORC is another walkable interior space which allows players to check into various races, both ranked and unranked, and it’ll be accompanied by a change in the matchmaking system that will hopefully allow for better racing.
A further change to the Live Events and the Solar Pass will come along in S7 too, as KT Racing looks to minimize the grind of the latter and the race focus of the former. This hasn’t been fleshed out just yet, as it’s “in the game design stage”, but should hopefully give players more to do than smash out the same handful of races to rank up the Solar Pass levels.
Yet more new brands are on their way this season too, with “Asian Vehicles” highlighted. We’ve seen Mazda (yay) and Mitsubishi flagged specifically, but nothing else at this stage.
Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown: Year 2, Season 8
This will be the one you’ve all been waiting for, and it’s coming along a year from now in July 2026: houses.
It’s set to be quite the expansive feature, ranging from the “full property purchase experience” with a real estate agent to customization of your property inside and — eventually — out.
Your house will become your headquarters away from the Solar Hotel, with properties of different sizes and types available in different locations around the map. Naturally, the prices will reflect what you buy and where, and how much money it’ll take to fill it with objects.
When you buy your house it will be empty, and you’ll be able to customize it with furniture and other objects — within the limits of the space and object zoning. That’ll mean that even if someone buys the exact same property as you, it’ll likely be a different space when you go visit (or vice versa). Although it may not arrive on S8 day one, the gardens will also eventually be customizable.
Of course other players can visit, so you may be able to see their cars on your driveway, and houses of various types have different garage sizes that you can fill with your vehicle collection too. More interactive features are also planned too.
Additional sites will open up for housing too, with KT Racing teasing their locations by moving construction plant to the sites for you to discover as you roam Hong Kong — and Ibiza too.
Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown: Year 3 & Beyond
There’s still more to come on TDUSC in the future too, with the team working on certain player requests for features and changes.
Two specifically detailed in the stream are cross-region play — with the title currently region-locked — and inter-platform crossplay. KT Racing notes that both require a change to the game’s network infrastructure, but that it is working on both. Cross-region is the priority of the two however, but there’s no ETA for either.
Additionally, and somewhat sneaked into the graphic above, is the future appearance of bikes and yachts in the game. We’re going to assume that the latter will be a development of the houses feature, but for the time being we’re going to have to wait and see.
For PlayStation gamers who haven’t played the title yet and think it might be a good time to get onboard, some TDUSC versions are discounted in the Summer Sale — with 60% off the Gold Edition that comes with a free VIP Solar Pass.
See more articles on Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown.
