Asetek Racing has pushed out a firmware update that turns the display on its sim racing wheels into a virtual button box, and the company isn’t being shy about the ambition: it says the feature makes the traditional standalone button box obsolete.

The update applies to existing Asetek wheels rather than requiring new hardware, which is the notable part. Owners get the extra functionality through software, using the screen already built into the wheel to handle inputs that would otherwise live on a separate panel bolted to the rig. Details beyond that are thin for now — Asetek hasn’t been quoted on exactly how many functions the virtual box supports or how the interface is laid out — so we’d treat the “button box killer” framing as marketing until people have lived with it for a while.

Still, the idea has obvious appeal. Button boxes solve a real problem in sim racing: modern titles, especially endurance racers and anything with complex car systems, demand more inputs than most wheels physically offer. But they’re also another purchase, another USB device, and another thing cluttering your rig. Folding that functionality into a screen you already own is a genuinely useful direction, particularly for people running compact setups or switching between disciplines with different control needs.

The trade-off worth watching is tactility. Physical buttons and toggles can be found by feel mid-corner; a screen generally can’t, unless the layout is smart about it. Whether Asetek’s implementation works at speed — while you’re three-wide into Eau Rouge — is the question that will decide if this genuinely replaces a button box or just supplements one. Either way, existing Asetek owners are getting new capability for free, and that’s the kind of firmware update we’d like to see more of from sim racing hardware makers.

Originally reported by Traxion.