Tesla owners will soon have the option of playing the “sadistically difficult” Cuphead on the built-in dashboard screens of their electric vehicles, representing a massive upgrade to the current video game options for the Model S, Model X, and Model 3.
Tesla’s V9.0 software update, released last year, added three Atari games to the infotainment system of the EVs, namely Asteroid, Centipede, and Missile Command. The list expanded earlier this year with the addition of 2048 and Breakout.
From 8-bit titles on the Atari, Tesla is now planning to add a game that was released on current-generation consoles. Cuphead, a bullet-hell shooter that was released on the Xbox One and PC in 2017 and ported to the Nintendo Switch this year, is coming soon to the Model S, Model X, and Model 3.
“Cuphead, we’ve got working,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed in the weekly Ride the Lightning podcast. “[The developers] have been helping us make it work. It’s a cool game. It’s insanely difficult. It’s sadistically difficult. It’s a twisted plot. It’s dark. It looks like some cute little Disney thing and you’re like, ‘This plot is very dark’,” Musk added.
The pending arrival of Cuphead to the the infotainment platform of Tesla vehicles is possible because it supports the Unity engine on which the game runs. Developer Studio MDHR is working with Tesla with the goal of releasing the port of the bullet-hell shooter later this summer, but the version in Tesla vehicles will only include the Inkwell Isle One section due to storage limitations.
Similar to the Atari games, Tesla owners will only be able play Cuphead while their vehicle is parked to eliminate the chance of accidents arising from distracted drivers. However, unlike the Atari titles which used the steering wheel or touchscreen for input, Cuphead will require a wired USB controller, which is probably for the best as it would be unimaginable to overcome the game’s difficulty with just the touchscreen.
The compatibility of Unity with Tesla’s infotainment system opens up the possibility of other titles coming to the electric vehicles, with Musk revealing in the podcast that a “beach buggy driving game” is being tested. The storage limitation, however, will be the major hindrance in getting more games to the Model S, Model X, and Model 3.
