To bring back FM, first steps as follows:
- Assamble a team. A proper team with knowledge and experience in the franchise if possible, or car games at the very least, the best they can get. Just like Nick Wiswell and Lance Hayes returned for the audio/music, albeit too late...
- Asset audit. Everything outdated gets removed until it can be added back as it should, even if it means down the line as DLC. QA alongside it, track down as many issues and bugs carried from past games, and keep refining things post-release. When a player spots something obviously wrong in the first 5 minutes, it means something is definitely not working fine regarding QA.
- Just like GT Sport was a spin-off sort to say, between GT6 and GT7, do the same here. Consider FM23 non-canon and call the new one Forza Motorsport 8. It should literally be double the game FM4 was, that's the mindset. (Even if not possible of course, but hey, aim for a 10, maybe you land a 8, if they aim for just 'good enough'...yep)
And everything else builds on that. That game requires ambition, passion. FM23 lacked soul, I enjoyed every FM before that, even poor FM5 who got bashed like there was no tomorrow...a proper comeback deserves something special, no need to rush it.
In the meantime, FH6 is the other way round, this is the best Horizon I've ever played, hands down, the experience is familiar of course after so many years, but the overall package just works better than I expected. Hopefully it inspires whoever needs to to revive FM, it really deserves a proper solid game after the decline in this decade.