Forza Motorsport Placed on Life Support as Microsoft Confirms No More Updates Planned

[RACECAR]

As one of the few people who very much enjoyed the Xbox One era of Forza this is a shame although writing was on the wall from Day One really.

Yet another racing game killed by an obsession with online multiplayer, barebone visuals and a seasonal focus!

Let's be real: Greed from the people at the top is what killed Forza Motorsport. Microsoft set an unrealistic target while then also deciding that rotating unpaid staff (Something that to my knowledge, Nobody else in the Sim Racing genre does) all to a backdrop of big promises (From the Ground up, anyone?) and shocker, they didn't even come close to it. You can have contentious elements like Online multiplayer and lackluster visuals and Seasonal focus and not be dead but when your game launches in the severe state it was in due to the lack of consistency in the dev team (In an industry where making these are already difficult enough), there is only ever one way it was gonna end..and it wasn't gonna be the major comeback Cyberpunk and No Mans Sky had (Especially with the Microsoft we have now).

It just had a lifeless aura from the start too, that permeated to everything like the UI, etc. There was zero passion in this game.

Hard to really have any passion or soul when the people making it where just thrown in and out like an assembly line.

 

[MisterWaffles]

This is sad. The main GT contender is already dead.

Well apparently the whole community prefer the open world festival arcade racing games after all.

Honestly I’m getting very tired of open world festival themed racers dominating the racing game landscape outside of Mario Kart. They’re not bad games but I’m getting bored of the premise.

Anyways as for Motorsport. I’m honestly sad it’s gone because now GT is missing its major competitor, and they have even if slightly, less incentive to innovate or make their games better. More competition is always better for everyone.

I was very critical of Forza Motorsport when it launched, as were a lot of people. They did sort of outright lie about of lot of things and of course “built from the ground up” became a meme and painted the game in a deservedly negative light.

But the game did improve and was on track to being a pretty decent racing experience. Maybe not the best in the series but certainly better than Forza 5 and 6.

I can only hope after a while away from the market. Microsoft sees what they’re missing and relaunches the series. This time actually from the ground up.

(Or they could just go the boring route and rebrand Forza to just “Horizon” and make it a festival racer until the end of time.)

 

[GTvsForza]

I think I'm in denial... I still want them to return to this, there's so much left for this game.

 

[RolexGTP]

I think I'm in denial... I still want them to return to this, there's so much left for this game.

Im in the same thought process right now man. Just another 6 months of updates and content would probably get this game close to perfect. All what was needed really was the remainder of this year to polish stuff up and beef up the tracks, cars and features and then they could have pulled the plug to start 2026. So close

 

[Nacho Libre]

There was zero passion in this game

Passion is such an overused and overrated term. Do you sincerely think the game was made by automatons? There is "passion" in the work of so many to make it playable and enjoyable, which it is and will continue to be even in its dormant state.

That being said, and as a player of GT7 too, IMO the main difference is that all that happens in GT (presentation, contents, events, etc.) is the result of a clear vision and direction. The fault of FM was focusing too much on the technical that underpins the game, poor communications ("Built from the, you know"), and underdelivering on the visuals/sound and overall presentation, which anyways improved over time and on PC are a different beast altogether.

I fully agree we didn't get this:



Footage captured in-engine my foot. Then again maybe 75% of all that Xbox presentation was vapor (Everwild? Dead. Fable? TBD and my hopes are not up. Halo Infinite? RIP too by the way)

 

[Ryan81]

Not surprised, frankly. When they axed the staff, the writing was on the wall. Real shame that GTs main competitor is done. I guess it shows how successful the GT franchise is, though.
As the owner of both, the only thing that Motorsport had over GT7 IMO was a far richer, updated car list from this decade. In every other respect, GT7 was way ahead.
There is something almost intangible in a brilliant way that makes GT stand apart from other racing games. Perhaps it's the attention to detail that always stood out for me.

 

[Beebo]

Not sure why it took them so long to officially confirm what a lot of people had figured would come to pass, still sad nevertheless. We have a video from one of the contract workers that helped work on the game and it's clear that there was some level of love put into the game. I would venture to say that it was both Microsoft and T10's fault. I've always wanted to hear about how T10 was managed because it sounded like some mismanagement was going on in the later years, but we may never know and that's just speculation on my part.

Although, you really can't ignore the thousands of positions laid off to free up spending on Copilot, a product that nobody seems to want. So thanks Microsoft, for that. Employees continue to suffer because of the poor decisions made by out of touch executive level individuals.

 

[Gerarghini]

Not surprised, frankly. When they axed the staff, the writing was on the wall. Real shame that GTs main competitor is done. I guess it shows how successful the GT franchise is, though.

I think it's both a combination of GT being the system-seller it's always been but also Microsoft's general incompetence when it came to gaming at the tail end of the 2010s. It infuriates me to no end how much of a lead the Forza franchise had over GT coming into the XBONE/PS4 era, only to do basically nothing new for FM6 & 7 (exaggerating, but I can't tell the XBONE games apart; they feel like copy+paste of one another) and then get steamrolled by the popularity of the Horizon series.

Then you have Microsoft buying up game studios, firing everyone who worked at them (exaggeration), and then releasing half-baked products in Halo Infinite and Forza Motorsport with nothing but empty promises as they go off and fire more people. The GT name carries a ton of weight but my God did Microsoft make it really easy for them (especially with GT7 also releasing on PS4).

 

[FordGTGuy]

It's not a lack of "passion" that caused this. People have been accusing Forza of lacking passion since the beginning but the franchise has always done well and always took top marks when released (even when the releases were underwhelming). I think a lot of passion was put into this game, it just suffered from decisions driven by profit and poor leadership.

Forza Motorsport failed when they decided to create a foundation around live service and FOMO. Combine that with the rumors of restarted development and being pushed out the door before it was ready for release. They were hoping that idea of continued live service would somehow make up for the lack of content at launch. (I honestly thought that career mode additions would be permanent and not rotating).

If Forza Motorsport would have released in its current state, without FOMO, with a well-rounded career (More like the original FM career) it would have done well. It would still have controversy and not be the best FM but it would have done way better.

People constantly focus on "built from the ground up", but what really upsets me is that they said how they were focused on community feedback and being open. Clearly this is not what happened during the development on the game.
It's insane that after the community has been yelling since the beginning that it took this extreme of EoL to get rid of the FOMO.

Here is the main issue that I don't see anyone talking about. The price of development, this game was forced out the door because Microsoft was hoping it would be good enough to recoup the extended dev cycle cost. Games now cost an absurd amount of money to create now. Combine that with corporation that expect profit margins to grow every year. Even if a game is doing well and is profitable it could still potentially be doomed if it's growth is seen as stagnant. The fact that they are even cutting bug updates really solidifies in my mind that they are unwilling to spend any more money towards the development of the existing title.

I would also consider the cuts to Turn 10 to be partially attributed to the Activision Blizzard purchase. Microsoft wants Xbox to maintain extremely high profit margins in order to offset the money spent. This can be seen in the cost increase of the console and Game Pass. Xbox had to make cuts and Forza Motorsport was likely not even selling enough to justify even the post-release support. I think they were hoping that the free track additions and FOMO would increase player counts and help drive Game Pass subscriptions.

Here is what I think. If Microsoft had decided to kill Forza Motorsport altogether then Turn 10 would no longer exist. They would have shut down the studio and consolidated Turn 10s remaining staff into Playground Games.

I think one of two things happen after Forza Horizon 6 launches.

1) Turn 10 hires more staff, changes leadership, and begins work on a new Forza Motorsport game. (Hopefully a real reboot that is based on the original title and not live service).

2) Turn 10 is consolidated into Playground Games and the Forza Motorsport franchise is dead for the foreseeable future.

It's not all doom and gloom, Microsoft is still funding and developing a massive range of games with diverse genres and unique titles. That is a good thing, it means that Xbox is still willing to fund projects and take risks. That is a ray of hope that we could see Forza Motorsport return at some point.

 

[odeepaanh]

Man if only this game turned out much better and eventually made it to PlayStation. We could’ve had real competition for gran turismo

 

[Ryan81]

I think it's both a combination of GT being the system-seller it's always been but also Microsoft's general incompetence when it came to gaming at the tail end of the 2010s. It infuriates me to no end how much of a lead the Forza franchise had over GT coming into the XBONE/PS4 era, only to do basically nothing new for FM6 & 7 (exaggerating, but I can't tell the XBONE games apart; they feel like copy+paste of one another) and then get steamrolled by the popularity of the Horizon series.

Then you have Microsoft buying up game studios, firing everyone who worked at them (exaggeration), and then releasing half-baked products in Halo Infinite and Forza Motorsport with nothing but empty promises as they go off and fire more people. The GT name carries a ton of weight but my God did Microsoft make it really easy for them (especially with GT7 also releasing on PS4).

You make some good points. Certainly Motorsport 3 and 4 upped the level of Forza big time with cockpit views for all cars something which gt5 and gt6 couldn't boast with those horrible "standard cars" (thank the Lord Jesus they did away with those) I liked Motorsport 4's Forzavista feature which carried over to 5 and 6. I get the impression that with 7 they were focusing more on the numbers than anything else. Quantity over quality.

By which time, Horizon seemed more accessible and "fun" for the masses, particularly from Horizon 3 onwards. I must admit, I also found the Horizon series far more interesting and engaging.
Maybe that was the killer blow for Motorsport. Horizon just being the lovable younger brother and Motorsport always lagging behind.

Shows that something ultimately successful initially can go downhill very fast due to being almost too successful and then T10 getting too greedy and branching out with Horizon. As the saying goes "Not enough room in this world for both"

 

[AttackDickie]

We should be getting Bernese Alps from T10 for Christmas, not the middle finger from Xbox/MS.

Can't say I haven't got my money's worth from the game, just disappointing moving forward.

 

[skazz]

I disagree with most of the comments here. I think lack of audience killed it no matter how good or bad it was at launch.


Don't forget that it really had the entire Xbox user base and day 1 Gamepass to perform in with very limited track racer competition (certainly nothing offering the same tuning, 600+ licensed cars, etc...), plus the PC user base for slightly-less-hardcore-simracers (although there's far more competition there). The previous FM7 didn't sell anywhere near as well as Horizon, and FM2023 proved that this is a prevailing user trend as much as being related to the specific game in my opinion.

Or to be even more blunt: When Forza Horizon has been pulling 10x sales/players since the FH3 era, Motorsport was always going to get reduced support. FM2023 showed even worse stats than FM7, and the leadership at T10 didn't seem to have a clear plan of how to change things, so Microsoft lost patience.


P.S. I say this as a huge fan of Forza. But as a PC sim racer first and foremost FM never got my attention the way FH3, 4 and 5 did. FH5 is in the running for one of my favourite games ever, fully on its own merits.

P.P.S. To give you guys another perspective: When FH5 was over 3 years old and the PS5 version was released, according to the Hall of Fame it had hit around 42 million unique players. 6 months later, another 10 million unique players were added, of which clearly a large number were PS5 users. So FH5 sold at least 6x as many copies ON PS5 ALONE AS A 3 YEAR OLD GAME as FM2023 sold on all platforms.

This shows how big the audience is for Horizon. The modern audience for semi-sim track racers is much smaller than some of you think, and track racers in general are a niche which is only getting smaller as we get better and better tech for large open world driving games.

 

[AudiMan2011]

I would also consider the cuts to Turn 10 to be partially attributed to the Activision Blizzard purchase. Microsoft wants Xbox to maintain extremely high profit margins in order to offset the money spent. This can be seen in the cost increase of the console and Game Pass. Xbox had to make cuts and Forza Motorsport was likely not even selling enough to justify even the post-release support. I think they were hoping that the free track additions and FOMO would increase player counts and help drive Game Pass subscriptions.

There's been rumors going around about how MS layoffs were also attributed to them quadrupling down on AI spending

 

[FordGTGuy]

There's been rumors going around about how MS layoffs were also attributed to them quadrupling down on AI spending

It's a combination of many things. Overall cuts to employees and certain projects are definitely related to AI spending. I think the Activision Blizzard purchase is more directly related to the changes at Xbox. Going completely multi-platform, moving their next-gen console to a more PC-like device, price increase of hardware, and a price increase of Game Pass.


The amount of money being spent on AI is absurd, to the point of paying to reactivate nuclear power plants. It's not just Microsoft, it's the entire industry that is pouring massive amounts of money into AI.

Why Microsoft made a deal to help restart Three Mile Island

A once-shuttered nuclear plant could soon return to the grid.

www.technologyreview.com

I disagree with most of the comments here. I think lack of audience killed it no matter how good or bad it was at launch.


Don't forget that it really had the entire Xbox user base and day 1 Gamepass to perform in with very limited track racer competition (certainly nothing offering the same tuning, 600+ licensed cars, etc...), plus the PC user base for slightly-less-hardcore-simracers (although there's far more competition there). The previous FM7 didn't sell anywhere near as well as Horizon, and FM2023 proved that this is a prevailing user trend as much as being related to the specific game in my opinion.

Or to be even more blunt: When Forza Horizon has been pulling 10x sales/players since the FH3 era, Motorsport was always going to get reduced support. FM2023 showed even worse stats than FM7, and the leadership at T10 didn't seem to have a clear plan of how to change things, so Microsoft lost patience.


P.S. I say this as a huge fan of Forza. But as a PC sim racer first and foremost FM never got my attention the way FH3, 4 and 5 did. FH5 is in the running for one of my favourite games ever, fully on its own merits.

P.P.S. To give you guys another perspective: When FH5 was over 3 years old and the PS5 version was released, according to the Hall of Fame it had hit around 42 million unique players. 6 months later, another 10 million unique players were added, of which clearly a large number were PS5 users. So FH5 sold at least 6x as many copies ON PS5 ALONE AS A 3 YEAR OLD GAME as FM2023 sold on all platforms.

This shows how big the audience is for Horizon. The modern audience for semi-sim track racers is much smaller than some of you think, and track racers in general are a niche which is only getting smaller as we get better and better tech for large open world driving games.

Skazz, I understand what you're saying but I have to say that arcade racing games have in general always been more popular than their circuit racing counter-parts.

Forza Motorsport didn't lose a bunch of sales because of Forza Horizon; Forza Horizon just sold more than Forza Motorsport. I don't think Forza Motorsport needs to be as popular as Horizon to be successful and profitable. Honestly, comparing any racing game to Forza Horizon 5 in popularity is just unfair at this point.

 

[TPGRacing75]

I disagree with most of the comments here. I think lack of audience killed it no matter how good or bad it was at launch.


Don't forget that it really had the entire Xbox user base and day 1 Gamepass to perform in with very limited track racer competition (certainly nothing offering the same tuning, 600+ licensed cars, etc...), plus the PC user base for slightly-less-hardcore-simracers (although there's far more competition there). The previous FM7 didn't sell anywhere near as well as Horizon, and FM2023 proved that this is a prevailing user trend as much as being related to the specific game in my opinion.

Or to be even more blunt: When Forza Horizon has been pulling 10x sales/players since the FH3 era, Motorsport was always going to get reduced support. FM2023 showed even worse stats than FM7, and the leadership at T10 didn't seem to have a clear plan of how to change things, so Microsoft lost patience.


P.S. I say this as a huge fan of Forza. But as a PC sim racer first and foremost FM never got my attention the way FH3, 4 and 5 did. FH5 is in the running for one of my favourite games ever, fully on its own merits.

P.P.S. To give you guys another perspective: When FH5 was over 3 years old and the PS5 version was released, according to the Hall of Fame it had hit around 42 million unique players. 6 months later, another 10 million unique players were added, of which clearly a large number were PS5 users. So FH5 sold at least 6x as many copies ON PS5 ALONE AS A 3 YEAR OLD GAME as FM2023 sold on all platforms.

This shows how big the audience is for Horizon. The modern audience for semi-sim track racers is much smaller than some of you think, and track racers in general are a niche which is only getting smaller as we get better and better tech for large open world driving games.

If all we will get outside of the super-hardcore sphere is open world festival racers, I guess I'll stick to my backlog of older racing games. I had my fun with Horizon 1, but the open-world-ification of gaming just doesn't grab me.

I'd rather 5 well curated fantasy circuits over a barren wasteland of open fields and uninteresting straight lines any day. Then again, I tend to be more of a Motorsport enthusiast than a "car enthusiast", with stuff like drifting and highway racing not being my style.

Unfortunately the only games left outside of GT that are slanted towards racing are super hardcore endless science projects with no single player to speak of, much less the ability to build and tune your own race cars from the ground up like Forza and GT provide.

Let's hope GT8 returns to the single player depth of old, without having to splash out extra cash to do so.

 

[skazz]

It's a combination of many things. Overall cuts to employees and certain projects are definitely related to AI spending. I think the Activision Blizzard purchase is more directly related to the changes at Xbox. Going completely multi-platform, moving their next-gen console to a more PC-like device, price increase of hardware, and a price increase of Game Pass.


The amount of money being spent on AI is absurd, to the point of paying to reactivate nuclear power plants. It's not just Microsoft, it's the entire industry that is pouring massive amounts of money into AI.

Why Microsoft made a deal to help restart Three Mile Island

A once-shuttered nuclear plant could soon return to the grid.

www.technologyreview.com

Skazz, I understand what you're saying but I have to say that arcade racing games have in general always been more popular than their circuit racing counter-parts.

Forza Motorsport didn't lose a bunch of sales because of Forza Horizon; Forza Horizon just sold more than Forza Motorsport. I don't think Forza Motorsport needs to be as popular as Horizon to be successful and profitable. Honestly, comparing any racing game to Forza Horizon 5 in popularity is just unfair at this point.

Yeah but what I tried (and failed) to properly say is that back before FH became big we only really had circuit racers due to tech limitations.

Now open world driving games are so capable, we are seeing the real audience of track racers. And Microsoft could no longer justify the ROI.

 

[Veinz]

This series has been in a death spiral since 5 released on the Xbox one. It’s unbelievable how many times Microsoft has fumbled their Xbox games, I’m glad I left that ****** platform in 2016.

 

[PorscheHD]

Microsoft sucks this game had a good comeback and deserved more!

Also on PC i have nothing like Forza and GT will never come.

And dont come with AC Evo it sucks with controller cant het and find good settings to enjoy that game.

I am a big car nerd and love GT and Forza and now kts gone unless i buy a PS5 for GT only something i dont want with a expensive PC setup.

Sad day.....

 

[Nacho Libre]

Microsoft sucks this game had a good comeback and deserved more!

Also on PC i have nothing like Forza and GT will never come.

And dont come with AC Evo it sucks with controller cant het and find good settings to enjoy that game.

I am a big car nerd and love GT and Forza and now kts gone unless i buy a PS5 for GT only something i dont want with a expensive PC setup.

Sad day.....

AC Evo is quite manageable with controller; I'll post my setting if that helps you. That being said... AC Evo is completely barebones as a game at the moment, and it should probably sit one more year in development.

Grid Legends now... It's like Forza Horizon with racetracks, and very good on its own.

 

[Reeneman]

This series has been in a death spiral since 5 released on the Xbox one. It’s unbelievable how many times Microsoft has fumbled their Xbox games, I’m glad I left that ****** platform in 2016.

In terms of gaming it’s the best that you could have done.

 

[Dave A]

I feel like both Forza Motorsport and Gran Turismo peaked a while ago, and while on certain levels, the games are better/more impressive now, they've been struggling to recapture the magic they had in the earlier days.

Some of the decision making since FM3/4 and GT3/4 has been odd IMO. There wasn't a lot wrong with the formula prior, but as good a game as FM4 was, they did blink and make a big change that IMO was a bad choice that's never been reversed from then. Prize cars.

Prior, you won an event and you won a prize car, with FM4 they stopped that and you won cars by leveling up, which was more structured and less exciting. That said, FM4 was still a great game IMO.

GT5 kept prize cars, but now you could only win them once, and GT6 abandoned them altogether in the main, with cars only won for certain Seasonal Events and career milestones etc.

IMO there was very little wrong with the event structure of those earlier games, and removing prize cars for winning events has removed a degree of interest in completing some of the events. I always tried to complete every event in GT1-4 because I wanted to know what I would win. In GT7 I just do Custom Races and repeat certain World Circuit events over and over and there are loads of races I haven't bothered with because there's no reason to do them.

Some people prefer that type of sandbox, but I prefer more of a captivating journey with surprises along the way. But over time we've seen the single player career modes of both games get smaller, simpler and take a back seat to online racing. There's no reason one has to be sacrificed for the other IMO. That said, GT7 appears to be doing well commercially, despite my perceived flaws in it, so we'll see how GT8 turns out.

 

[CTznOfTime]

No words to describe how much I hate Microsoft right now

No need to hate them... I don't think the people involved would want their own fate either.
This is all due to the people with the money pouch... Just like in any other industry: aerospace, automotive, health care, education and restaurants etc...
So many doubtful choices are made during these tough times...

Even though I have never played Forza Motorsports I am saddened by this. Maybe it can be revived in a few years.

Likewise, even tho I am a hardcore GT fanboi, I have always rooted for Forza Motorsports to become the best they could be and become real competition to GT.

I always wanted to win and the underdog, and give me a reason to buy the Xbox, they were so close than ever and I believe and I hope despite this major set back, that one day they can prove us they can beat GT at their own game...
One day... So far away ..

We can't even be sure when GT8 will come and so we are now even less sure when this next FM will ever come ..

Honestly I’m getting very tired of open world festival themed racers dominating the racing game landscape outside of Mario Kart. They’re not bad games but I’m getting bored of the premise.

Anyways as for Motorsport. I’m honestly sad it’s gone because now GT is missing its major competitor, and they have even if slightly, less incentive to innovate or make their games better. More competition is always better for everyone.

I was very critical of Forza Motorsport when it launched, as were a lot of people. They did sort of outright lie about of lot of things and of course “built from the ground up” became a meme and painted the game in a deservedly negative light.

But the game did improve and was on track to being a pretty decent racing experience. Maybe not the best in the series but certainly better than Forza 5 and 6.

I can only hope after a while away from the market. Microsoft sees what they’re missing and relaunches the series. This time actually from the ground up.

(Or they could just go the boring route and rebrand Forza to just “Horizon” and make it a festival racer until the end of time.)

Same here.
For all the fun and the success that Horizon has benefited, I know a lot of people love that concept, but
I have given so many times my chance to enjoy it but It never last me more than 10 hours until I give up.

I last bought FH5 last month to play on my PS5,
I enjoyed it, but I came right back to GT7

And Spec 3 is another reasons, together with VR2, I can't find the fun in the FH5 in comparison.

I personally don't find the fun in the open world festival stuff, I find it so obnoxious. I must be too old for that sort of things.

I prefer to traditional racing and the solo player car collection instead, doing my own thing, at my own pace, with selective peer pressure.

Not surprised, frankly. When they axed the staff, the writing was on the wall. Real shame that GTs main competitor is done. I guess it shows how successful the GT franchise is, though.
As the owner of both, the only thing that Motorsport had over GT7 IMO was a far richer, updated car list from this decade. In every other respect, GT7 was way ahead.
There is something almost intangible in a brilliant way that makes GT stand apart from other racing games. Perhaps it's the attention to detail that always stood out for me.

Yup
I was so jealous of the roster in FM, I wish those cars were coming to GT7 ...
But of course the quality of the cars in GT7 is unparalleled, there must be a way for them to improve on that process.

Forza looks to be left behind in the wayside, and the gap now looks humongous, doubtful they FM can ever recover to even challenge anywhere near GT8 and its potential.

If Microsoft is smart, they should jump straight into VR exclusively, VR racing only for the next FM.
I am calling it here first.

In the meantime I will be playing with another MS product:Flight Sim 24 in the next few months until VR2 funcitonal.

MS Racing Sim 2035 on VR would be top notch...

 

[TPGRacing75]

I feel like both Forza Motorsport and Gran Turismo peaked a while ago, and while on certain levels, the games are better/more impressive now, they've been struggling to recapture the magic they had in the earlier days.

Some of the decision making since FM3/4 and GT3/4 has been odd IMO. There wasn't a lot wrong with the formula prior, but as good a game as FM4 was, they did blink and make a big change that IMO was a bad choice that's never been reversed from then. Prize cars.

Prior, you won an event and you won a prize car, with FM4 they stopped that and you won cars by leveling up, which was more structured and less exciting. That said, FM4 was still a great game IMO.

GT5 kept prize cars, but now you could only win them once, and GT6 abandoned them altogether in the main, with cars only won for certain Seasonal Events and career milestones etc.

IMO there was very little wrong with the event structure of those earlier games, and removing prize cars for winning events has removed a degree of interest in completing some of the events. I always tried to complete every event in GT1-4 because I wanted to know what I would win. In GT7 I just do Custom Races and repeat certain World Circuit events over and over and there are loads of races I haven't bothered with because there's no reason to do them.

Some people prefer that type of sandbox, but I prefer more of a captivating journey with surprises along the way. But over time we've seen the single player career modes of both games get smaller, simpler and take a back seat to online racing. There's no reason one has to be sacrificed for the other IMO. That said, GT7 appears to be doing well commercially, despite my perceived flaws in it, so we'll see how GT8 turns out.

I wholeheartedly agree 100%. It's a shame how much campaign modes in racing games have regressed, despite every other aspect having come on leaps and bounds. If GT7 had the single player campaign structure of GT4, just with the current roster of vehicles, it would easily rank as one of the greatest racing games of all time IMO.

Also, custom races are really the only reason to play GT7 at this point for us offline peasants, and even then it doesn't fully replace a carefully crafted and well thought out single player progression system.

Really the only recent major racing titles to have a decent single player in the past few years IMO are Grid Legends, and the TXR Reboot

Even on the subject of prize cars in these ForzaTurismo (as I call them) style of games, the main issue I have had in some games was getting prizes only once, which for game balance, I can understand (RSC farming anybody?) BUT the Power Pack has already solved that problem: award the prize car as a gift upon first completion, THEN allow for extra copies to be bought later if you so choose.

It's a shame that Forza has gone the way of the dodo. Now the only non-GT7 choices left are cookie cutter hardcore sims and festival racers. We need more competition at this point in time NOT less!

Adios Forza Motorsport.... Rest Easy :'(

 

[Nacho Libre]

But of course the quality of the cars in GT7 is unparalleled, there must be a way for them to improve on that process.

Well...


They certainly knew how back in the day and arguably got there right after GT (and some things before even). It's said that Kaz doesn't play or follow other driving games, fine, but nothing will convince me that someone in PD watched and took notice of this.

 

[Gerarghini]

I feel like both Forza Motorsport and Gran Turismo peaked a while ago, and while on certain levels, the games are better/more impressive now, they've been struggling to recapture the magic they had in the earlier days.

I agree, but I do feel like a lot of what made FM4/GT5 memorable (as an example) is nostalgia doing a lot of heavy lifting

Nothing beats coming home from school to do drag races on SSR7 or dirty NASCAR granted, I guess you could still technically do that, but some of it feels like I don't have the time.

With Forza (including Horizon, believe it or not), I always got the sense that the games began losing the "storytelling" aspect of their single player after 5, especially after the Top Gear trio was dropped (yes, not really T10's fault) in favor of just throwing cars at you because the roster is so diverse and varied. Gran Turismo is kinda the same, but they jumped the shark with 6's asinine intro that evolved into the Menu Book system that barely qualifies as a career.

 

[Lunard]

Well...


They certainly knew how back in the day and arguably got there right after GT (and some things before even). It's said that Kaz doesn't play or follow other driving games, fine, but nothing will convince me that someone in PD watched and took notice of this.

Wow.
T10 really made a great work on FM4.
Sadly that's in the past now.

 

[Ande3200]

I am not supriced by this, after hearing the layoffs earlier this year. While i am not a fan of fm 23, its still a sad day for the franshise, can never forget the memories fm3 and fm4 give me,

But i also think it wrong to blame horizon for motorsport state like i seen some people do.

On pc you will now have wait for ac evo once it hits 1.0 to have anything simular to gt7 on ps5,

I would go as far to say that ac evo could pressure gt and fh of they do it right.

What kunos trying to do given their small studio is impressive.

 

[GlamFM]

They had six years to make Forza Motorsport (2023), and they blew it.

Forza Motorsport needed a GT Sport style reset - a clean reboot that would serve as a strong foundation for the future of the franchise.

Turn 10 definitely talked the talk, but they did not deliver.

“Built from the ground up” - lol.

More like "In the ground".

 

[SimTourist]

They had six years to make Forza Motorsport (2023), and they blew it.

Forza Motorsport needed a GT Sport style reset - a clean reboot that would serve as a strong foundation for the future of the franchise.

Turn 10 definitely talked the talk, but they did not deliver.

“Built from the ground up” - lol.

More like "In the ground".

Honestly I don't think having a few car or track models be more accurate would change anything, or even a different career mode. The franchise is tied to xbox and xbox itself is struggling, FM hit it's peak when xbox hit it's peak back in 2009-2010. And the competition in the simracing market is much more fierce than in the arcade racer market, you have a dozen racers all competing for the same pie and Forza just doesn't have a unique selling feature.