Turn 10 to “Continue to Support” Forza Motorsport, But Its Future Remains Unclear

[Famine]

Forza Motorsport ain't putting pressure on anything

Except the dole queue.

 

[astrarobotica]

As for the future of Forza, I can only see FM and FH merging to become an all encompassing Forza title to not lose their FM audience, like Assetto Corsa Evo which aims to set an example of merging open-world and sim racing too.

I can't imagine that happening. I think Evo can do it because the open-world stuff isn't going to be some Horizon-sized map with hundreds of activities scattered around, it's going to be pretty basic by comparison.

 

[Tornado]

t was a dumb decision to make Fable on Forzatech engine, retooling and repurposing a specialized engine to a different genre is always a mess. We've already seen a story like this with EA forcing devs to switch to Frostbite, a good engine for shooters, but a complete ******** when Bioware tried to make it work with a third person camera and RPG systems, even by their third project they were still struggling with it. Can't imagine trying to make a creaky old racing engine do complex human animation, facial animation, RPG systems, combat, interactive NPCs, etc. If they used Unreal 5 it would've released years ago.

We probably should wait for the game to come out before we assume it will be a technical disaster that would have been better off being dumped onto UE5 (so it could run like garbage with no solutions to fixing it like most of the other open world UE5 games). BioWare's struggles over the past decade+ are certainly well reported on, but they also existed far beyond the game engine they were using and the documentation problems it presented to non-DICE studios. There absolutely exists space in the industry for proprietary game development, as borne out by the major studios that haven't decided to just hitch their entire being on the back of Tim Epic's whims.


This in particular:

If they used Unreal 5 it would've released years ago.

Is about as certainly false as something can be without insider knowledge; and ironically your BioWare example points directly to why.

 

[pez2k]

It was a dumb decision to make Fable on Forzatech engine, retooling and repurposing a specialized engine to a different genre is always a mess.
...
If they used Unreal 5 it would've released years ago.

The irony there is of course that Unreal Engine was a specialised first-person shooter engine which was successfully made more generic only a few years after it was introduced.

The staff at Playground also have extensive knowledge of and experience with Forzatech, and probably little to no experience with UE5. There's a lot to be said for sticking with tech that the team already knows compared to retraining everyone, especially considering how much that environment artists for example could get done with existing Forzatech tools and knowledge while the programmers work on implementing the new engine features.

The Fable project clearly hasn't gone smoothly, but I don't think it's anywhere near as simple as just blaming it on the choice of engine.

 

[Digolgrin]

At this point, I wonder if FH6 being pushed to presumably 2026 is so PG can move to rebrand the game under a simpler moniker. I mean, with Motorsport done, there's no other game to confuse it with in the entire Forza IP. Axe the '6' in the title, maybe make the game less reliant on a single setting, and you're good.

 

[Ande3200]

I can't imagine that happening. I think Evo can do it because the open-world stuff isn't going to be some Horizon-sized map with hundreds of activities scattered around, it's going to be pretty basic by comparison.

The ac evo open world map might get less activities than horizon, but its not going to be basic, their is already confirmed to be buisnesses around witch those sound deeper than horizon in some ways,
Sprint races etc, gas stations to refuel your cars etc, and thats just what we know of as of now. The size of the map will also be a lot larger, and possibly more accurate roads, in horizon they are way to wide of what they should be,

I always find the horizon open world maps to be weaker than ex nfs and the crew, but better in most other ways,

Maybe next horizon will have more elements from fm to combine it a bit, but i still see that as unlikely.

 

[RACECAR]

At this point, a PS5 version of Forza Motorsport really isn't too far-fetched. It could be a way to save the game and Turn Ten through sales and revenue, considering FH5 itself is doing very well on PS5, sales-wise.

I suspect FH5's sales success prior is exactly why it ended up on PS5. It already sold well enough so it was a safe bet to dip a toe in the water and see if taking this franchise to the rival platform would be worth doing, especially one that has outsold what was its home platform by far, and clearly it was. I don't see Forza Motorsport getting the same treatment given its various issues both in and OUT of the game. Even before all this news regarding the studio layoffs, I had long suspected FH5's launch on the PS5 (a Console that has completely outside Xbox 1 by a huge margin) also doubled as a sign that the Horizon Franchise was going to be THE path the Forza franchise goes from now on in a Multi-platform future so all the developments here coupled with the sales only appear to lean more towards that scenario in my eyes.

PS5 release could be an option and of course more pressure to PD and Gran Turismo, it's necessary.

You cannot be serious. There is no way a game who's development was itself was troubled just with staff alone, who's launch was atrocious (Where we even begin with the various issues) and who's staff has been significantly reduced is getting a PS5 release that'll magically put "More Pressure" on a game who's development likely had none of those issues, who's launch was only contextually horrible with the hidden Microtransactions and who's staff is looking pretty healthy last I checked (and judging by them supposedly looking to hire more, only continues to grow).

One franchise continues to be a sales success with its future pretty much secured (No matter how questionable the design choices are) and one is looking very much dead if at the very least on Life support. Guess which one is not in ANY position to put Pressure on anything or anyone (other then if the folks remaining even still have jobs themselves beyond this year)

 

[karaokequeen3]

Except the dole queue.

 

[TPGRacing75]

I'm just a bit sad at potentially losing another intermediate ground closed-track sim/simcade.

Seems if you want a game on the more accessable side, you're forced to an open world festival racer, and if you want track racing, you are forced to go to the major hardcore sim titles that lack any sort of meaningful offline progression system.

It seems there just isn't any space for structured simcade closed track racing games with licenced cars anymore outside of Gran Turismo itself. Funny how the one who started the trend is now the last man standing.

While I'd never say never to another potential game in this market space, the cost of entry(from car model detail, licencing costs, and sheer amount of content required) would prohibit anyone smaller than at least a AA studio from having a hope in hell, and most of the studios with the budget and manpower don't see any money in it.

While I'm a firm believer that you could do a reasonably solid indepth GT style career mode with say 100-ish cars if you are very deliberate and choosy with your carlist and 10 locations, given said locations have multiple track layouts and reverse versions, I'm not certain the market at large would be so accepting of a game with such limited content and potentially feeling samey or stale, unless you actively push to maximize every last car and track at your disposal.

The only one I see right now that has a logical chance is Kunos with ACEvo, and even then I think they might be biting off more than they can chew trying to be a hardcore sim for the eSports/online crowd, a deep well structured GT-like, AND a fleshed out open road free roam game all in the same package. And that is not mentioning potentially trying to be a modding platform even half as open as the original AC

 

[Morbid65]

Ok... there is a caveat. The Caterham in Forza is not fun. That is an exercise in frustration.

Doesn't help for career mode, but if you power cut it to approximately the same power as the real life lower tier models then it's actually fun. Like 125-ish horsepower is a pretty good spot, which is about what the Zetec Ford powered ones have I think.

Kinda normal T10 fashion to give us the dumb overpowered version that is harder to drive and has less upgrade options when the lower tier models are way more fun. Same story with the Ariel Atom, Radical SR8 (in FM7), Ultima GTR, Hellcats, etc.

 

[tankuroded]

I'm just a bit sad at potentially losing another intermediate ground closed-track sim/simcade.

Seems if you want a game on the more accessable side, you're forced to an open world festival racer, and if you want track racing, you are forced to go to the major hardcore sim titles that lack any sort of meaningful offline progression system.

It seems there just isn't any space for structured simcade closed track racing games with licenced cars anymore outside of Gran Turismo itself. Funny how the one who started the trend is now the last man standing.

While I'd never say never to another potential game in this market space, the cost of entry(from car model detail, licencing costs, and sheer amount of content required) would prohibit anyone smaller than at least a AA studio from having a hope in hell, and most of the studios with the budget and manpower don't see any money in it.

While I'm a firm believer that you could do a reasonably solid indepth GT style career mode with say 100-ish cars if you are very deliberate and choosy with your carlist and 10 locations, given said locations have multiple track layouts and reverse versions, I'm not certain the market at large would be so accepting of a game with such limited content and potentially feeling samey or stale, unless you actively push to maximize every last car and track at your disposal.

The only one I see right now that has a logical chance is Kunos with ACEvo, and even then I think they might be biting off more than they can chew trying to be a hardcore sim for the eSports/online crowd, a deep well structured GT-like, AND a fleshed out open road free roam game all in the same package. And that is not mentioning potentially trying to be a modding platform even half as open as the original AC

There is also a sign of shift in culture, where only race cars seemingly belong in a closed track racer, leaving road cars to open world racers. (See responses to road cars in GT7.)

Additionally, there's TXR '25, but that's still open world (if more restrained, and without the seen-as-tired festival schtick, in favor of frequently-demanded Japanese street racing theme that resulted in requests for/speculations of a Forza Horizon game set in Japan).