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

[Ande3200]

I will just go to other titles for what I want. Open world sims/racing games don't interest me.

Well the open world is optional. Its still going to offer racing tracks like any other sim racing game. Big thumps up to kunos for doing something differernt.

 

[Bogie 19th]

Phil Spencer interviewed and asked if they are done with Forza Motorsport IP:

I'm sure veteran fans are curious about the future of popular IP "Forza Motorsport" series. What do you think? Have you reached the end of the line for this IP?

Phil Spencer - "No! We sometimes need to shift our focus to games that are released sooner (FH6). We understand the reaction many people had when we scaled back Turn10 Studios. We have a large number of games we want to support carefully, and sometimes we give development teams a little more time to avoid putting them under strain. Our current structure allows us this flexibility."

フィル・スペンサー氏に“Xboxのつぎのコンソール”や小島監督の『OD』、『Halo』シリーズの今後など、気になるあれこれを聞いた【インタビュー】 | ゲーム・エンタメ最新情報のファミ通.com

マイクロソフト ゲーミングCEO フィル・スペンサー氏へのインタビューをお届けする。東京ゲームショウの会期初日に行われた“Xbox 東京ゲームショウ 2025 ブロードキャスト”で明らかになった新情報のトピックなども交えつつ、フィル・スペンサー氏に今後の展望などを聞いた。

www.famitsu.com

 

[Fezzik]

 

[RolexGTP]

Phil Spencer interviewed and asked if they are done with Forza Motorsport IP:

I'm sure veteran fans are curious about the future of popular IP "Forza Motorsport" series. What do you think? Have you reached the end of the line for this IP?

Phil Spencer - "No! We sometimes need to shift our focus to games that are released sooner (FH6). We understand the reaction many people had when we scaled back Turn10 Studios. We have a large number of games we want to support carefully, and sometimes we give development teams a little more time to avoid putting them under strain. Our current structure allows us this flexibility."

フィル・スペンサー氏に“Xboxのつぎのコンソール”や小島監督の『OD』、『Halo』シリーズの今後など、気になるあれこれを聞いた【インタビュー】 | ゲーム・エンタメ最新情報のファミ通.com

マイクロソフト ゲーミングCEO フィル・スペンサー氏へのインタビューをお届けする。東京ゲームショウの会期初日に行われた“Xbox 東京ゲームショウ 2025 ブロードキャスト”で明らかになった新情報のトピックなども交えつつ、フィル・スペンサー氏に今後の展望などを聞いた。

www.famitsu.com

Interesting. We still never got a definitive answer about the future of this game so that explains a little bit of the mystery. Could be true could be taken with a grain of salt. But I still see this game on life support until something new comes into the picture

 

[Saidur_Ali]

Phil Spencer interviewed and asked if they are done with Forza Motorsport IP:

I'm sure veteran fans are curious about the future of popular IP "Forza Motorsport" series. What do you think? Have you reached the end of the line for this IP?

Phil Spencer - "No! We sometimes need to shift our focus to games that are released sooner (FH6). We understand the reaction many people had when we scaled back Turn10 Studios. We have a large number of games we want to support carefully, and sometimes we give development teams a little more time to avoid putting them under strain. Our current structure allows us this flexibility."

フィル・スペンサー氏に“Xboxのつぎのコンソール”や小島監督の『OD』、『Halo』シリーズの今後など、気になるあれこれを聞いた【インタビュー】 | ゲーム・エンタメ最新情報のファミ通.com

マイクロソフト ゲーミングCEO フィル・スペンサー氏へのインタビューをお届けする。東京ゲームショウの会期初日に行われた“Xbox 東京ゲームショウ 2025 ブロードキャスト”で明らかになった新情報のトピックなども交えつつ、フィル・スペンサー氏に今後の展望などを聞いた。

www.famitsu.com

This is omitting what was said which removes context. Sounds like they axed most of studio due to being a game more recently released and it takes too long to create a new one. Probably they deemed it not financially worth it as Forza Motorsport (2023) didn't seem to do too well. Going by their recent actions, they seem to be only prioritising games that they think will be successful. Never say never though, they might be able to reboot it again with Playground Games and build Turn 10 Studios back up one day. Below is full Google Translation.

--I understand. By the way, speaking of software, I'm sure veteran fans are curious about the future of popular IP such as the "Halo" series and the "Forza Motorsport" series. What do you think? Have you reached the end of the line for these IPs?

Phil Spencer:

No! Halo Studios (formerly 343 Industries) is planning for the future and taking on new challenges. We're committed to Unreal Engine 5 and new technologies. We're committed to giving them the time they need to invest in the Halo franchise and create the next great game in the Halo series.

Regarding Forza Motorsport, we sometimes need to shift our focus to games that are released sooner. We understand the reaction many people had when we scaled back Turn 10 Studios. We have a large number of games we want to support carefully, and sometimes we give development teams a little more time to avoid putting them under strain. Our current structure allows us this flexibility.

Xbox Game Studios has over 20 studios, and we have many games in development, each with different support needs. We have both short-term and mid- to long-term perspectives. We want our games to be successful. Xbox Game Studios is currently developing many titles, so please look forward to them in the future.

 

[Bogie 19th]

This is omitting what was said which removes context. Sounds like they axed most of studio due to being a game more recently released and it takes too long to create a new one. Probably they deemed it not financially worth it as Forza Motorsport (2023) didn't seem to do too well. Going by their recent actions, they seem to be only prioritising games that they think will be successful. Never say never though, they might be able to reboot it again with Playground Games and build Turn 10 Studios back up one day.

130 developers remain out of 200. Axing 70 people isn't "most of the studio". Phil confirmed in the interview that they have the team helping finish up Forza Horizon 6. FM is a very successful franchise, and most likely will continue to thrive.

 

[Beezer215]

Ya, that's what I took from this too. We know that they had unreal expectations that culminated during covid. They over-hired people and that wasn't sustainable. The team at Turn 10 got shuffled around and now it looks like they want to get out FH6 so that both titles, FM and FH6 would be in an update cycle and not still in a state of development
This is the best news you could possibly get. We've seen them still active in the online features. In the social media platforms. I would rather FM not be on a so called sabbatical but so be it. Sooner or later I think this will be picked back up and worked on. Seems to be a lot of history with Forza Motorsport to just say it's not worth it.

 

[Bogie 19th]

Ya, that's what I took from this too. We know that they had unreal expectations that culminated during covid. They over-hired people and that wasn't sustainable. The team at Turn 10 got shuffled around and now it looks like they want to get out FH6 so that both titles, FM and FH6 would be in an update cycle and not still in a state of development
This is the best news you could possibly get. We've seen them still active in the online features. In the social media platforms. I would rather FM not be on a so called sabbatical but so be it. Sooner or later I think this will be picked back up and worked on. Seems to be a lot of history with Forza Motorsport to just say it's not worth it.

My only issue is the lack of actual content updates.

 

[Beezer215]

My only issue is the lack of actual content updates.

Were they supposed to give us something right away? I'm not concerned at all and now even less concerned. We live in an age of gimmee gimmee gimmee now. AMS2 didn't have an update for over 6 months after giving us updates just about every month. And that update was more than worth it because it found issues inherent within the Madness Engine and fixed multiple issues which had been in PC1 and PC2. I know that has nothing to do with FM but the point being is what's a few months for them to get it together?
They made mistakes at a corporate level, and I am very anti-Microsoft myself so I will not even try to make excuses for a company I loathe.
If Phil Spencer has lied, and he can/could very well do that, then that could be considered a step towards career suicide when you have an xbox/microsoft flagship title on the line. At this point, I really don't see deceit in his statement. I think they were thrown in a horrible situation because higher ups just don't understand how **** works at the studio level.

 

[McLaren]

Were they supposed to give us something right away? I'm not concerned at all and now even less concerned. We live in an age of gimmee gimmee gimmee now. AMS2 didn't have an update for over 6 months after giving us updates just about every month. And that update was more than worth it because it found issues inherent within the Madness Engine and fixed multiple issues which had been in PC1 and PC2. I know that has nothing to do with FM but the point being is what's a few months for them to get it together?
They made mistakes at a corporate level, and I am very anti-Microsoft myself so I will not even try to make excuses for a company I loathe.
If Phil Spencer has lied, and he can/could very well do that, then that could be considered a step towards career suicide when you have an xbox/microsoft flagship title on the line. At this point, I really don't see deceit in his statement. I think they were thrown in a horrible situation because higher ups just don't understand how **** works at the studio level.

Unfortunately, I think he'd still keep his job. The console itself is already in a rough spot (Costco dropped them, the Gamepass price increases haven't been well received, & you have the console increase in price), yet he's still out here giving interviews & broad information on Xbox's future. Spencer did a good job turning things around after Mattrick, but even though the goodwill appears to have evaporated, Satya seems like he'll stand by him.

 

[Bogie 19th]

Were they supposed to give us something right away? I'm not concerned at all and now even less concerned. We live in an age of gimmee gimmee gimmee now.

I agree with your statement. I guess, as a consumer, I would just like more and more value for money. Not that I don't feel I didn't get any value from paying $60 for FM 2023. But if I can get MORE, I will take it. I won't complain though if I don't, unless we were sold a barebones, zero content game with a promise of more to come to fill that value void and it didn't happen. If you look at GT7, it's been out for 3 years and their content continues to trickle out. If they suddenly stopped, I wouldn't complain at all, as I feel I received a great value for my money. BUT, would I like them to release more free content? Sure. But I won't expect it.

Were they supposed to give us something right away? I'm not concerned at all and now even less concerned. We live in an age of gimmee gimmee gimmee now. AMS2 didn't have an update for over 6 months after giving us updates just about every month. And that update was more than worth it because it found issues inherent within the Madness Engine and fixed multiple issues which had been in PC1 and PC2. I know that has nothing to do with FM but the point being is what's a few months for them to get it together?
They made mistakes at a corporate level, and I am very anti-Microsoft myself so I will not even try to make excuses for a company I loathe.
If Phil Spencer has lied, and he can/could very well do that, then that could be considered a step towards career suicide when you have an xbox/microsoft flagship title on the line. At this point, I really don't see deceit in his statement. I think they were thrown in a horrible situation because higher ups just don't understand how **** works at the studio level.

If there is one thing I have learned is that I never trust any of these corporations. MS, Sony, you name it. But, I won't let that impact my enjoyment of life. I want to be able to just buy and play what appeals to me without recourse.

One can call me naive. But I call it optimism. I look forward to an FM9. If I went through life thinking or reading about all the negative aspects of the gaming community, I wouldn't be happy and I wouldn't game anymore.

Phil Spencer, Herman Hulst, etc are all people just like us at the end of the day. I work for Hilton Corporation. I would never lie from the perspective of Hilton to the consumer. But there will be PR releases that may stretch the truth, and in the end, it's marketing. Deceiving at times, but marketing.

I tend to trust everyone on a personal level. My wife says that is my downfall. She also says she wishes she was as positive as I am.

 

[RolexGTP]

I will say if T10 does decide to continue with updates to FM in the future, there will be some seriously stiff competition with PMR coming out. Then you have PD giving GT7 some decent-ish regular updates lately and then AC, AMS2, LMU plus iRacing still holding strong at the top spots it just won't be as easy to win back a good chunk of the player base. Many have already jumped ship with no intentions of returning for better more complete titles. Im just here on the sidelines waiting for T10s next move on this game but with other options on my mind and if they somehow don't go any further than oh well. Life goes on and other options will be utilized .

 

[Beezer215]

I look forward to an FM9.

Forza Motorsport 2? You're not getting a Forza Motorsport 9, we didn't even get an 8. It was supposed to be a platform to be built off of for the foreseeable future. They have said this from the beginning. If FM sits stagnant for a little while, which it is, that doesn't mean that a 9(2) all the sudden is in the works and we just all forget about what happened.
They'll pick this back up when they are ready before a 9(2) happens. It already has all the tools and features to be built upon. In my personal feeling, we'll see drag racing, we'll see new tracks. We'll see new events. We already need to have events added because you can't even access all the cars to own as it is.
What really needs to end is people fueling these chicken little kids on the social medias thinking the sky is falling and everything is "dead" because something didn't conform to what they thought it should be. Things happen. Look at Assetto Corsa Evo. I knew they weren't going to adhere to their proposed schedule. I knew it. We did this before. And now all you get is melodramatic "look at me's" who think it's better to trash the sim rather than to encourage them in their development.

 

[Bogie 19th]

Forza Motorsport 2? You're not getting a Forza Motorsport 9, we didn't even get an 8. It was supposed to be a platform to be built off of for the foreseeable future. They have said this from the beginning. If FM sits stagnant for a little while, which it is, that doesn't mean that a 9(2) all the sudden is in the works and we just all forget about what happened.

I guess I just meant the next FM, so I said FM9 because there have been 8 mainline FM games. They said the same thing about Halo Infinite being a 10 year supported platform, but that didn't pan out very well.

They'll pick this back up when they are ready before a 9(2) happens. It already has all the tools and features to be built upon. In my personal feeling, we'll see drag racing, we'll see new tracks. We'll see new events. We already need to have events added because you can't even access all the cars to own as it is.

If they carry on where they left off with this version, I would like to see all of that you wrote as well. I would also like to see them upgrade the performance and graphics (and physics) for the next gen Xbox, assuming it has a substantial increase in power.

What really needs to end is people fueling these chicken little kids on the social medias thinking the sky is falling and everything is "dead" because something didn't conform to what they thought it should be. Things happen. Look at Assetto Corsa Evo. I knew they weren't going to adhere to their proposed schedule. I knew it. We did this before. And now all you get is melodramatic "look at me's" who think it's better to trash the sim rather than to encourage them in their development.

I could not agree with you more.

 

[egl92]

If it's true that FM is still alive, they have to do something to prove it. Phil Spencer's words are not enough.

Maybe a good move on Turn10's part would be to do something similar to Horizon's Secret Santa.

Give away one or two of the more requested cars so people know the game isn't dead.

At least try to convey people that you're still working on improvements.
If it takes a while for a major update, OK take as much time as you need, but do something to keep people from abandoning Forza altogether, as there are alternatives on both PC and console.

Show a teaser or some work in progress.
Silence only makes people assume that the game has reached the end of the road.

Forza Motorsport doesn't deserve to celebrate its 20 years of existence by ending in such a disastrous way.

 

[RolexGTP]

If it's true that FM is still alive, they have to do something to prove it. Phil Spencer's words are not enough.

Maybe a good move on Turn10's part would be to do something similar to Horizon's Secret Santa.

Give away one or two of the more requested cars so people know the game isn't dead.

At least try to convey people that you're still working on improvements.
If it takes a while for a major update, OK take as much time as you need, but do something to keep people from abandoning Forza altogether, as there are alternatives on both PC and console.

Show a teaser or some work in progress.
Silence only makes people assume that the game has reached the end of the road.

Forza Motorsport doesn't deserve to celebrate its 20 years of existence by ending in such a disastrous way.

Fully agreed with everything you mentioned. I mean the end of the year is coming up quickly, they have the opportunity to end this year not really with a bang but a step in the right direction at least going into 2026.

 

[Nacho Libre]

Don't sleep on this now, but the strength of the FM platform is its scalability. Right now, FM on PC is a different beast from the X/S versions, capable of running higher graphical settings at higher frame rates on mid to high CPU/GPU combinations. But whenever this Xbox "Magnus" shows up, that game's version will catch-up or even surpass the current PC specs, and if they restart with content updates and further upgrades, the bar will continue to rise across their platforms: console, portable, PC.

With GT7 (which I'm currently playing) I can see it's cross-platform model and the PS5 version now sits in the middle in graphics and performance (PS4-PS5-PS5 Pro). But whenever PS6 shows up, GT7 won't be able to scale further, and they will need to develop another game to match the higher specs (and finally leave PS4). This is why we are getting a FH6 too, because the current tech in FH5 is no longer scalable.

They can do a soft relaunch of FM, it just needs the right director and creatives for it, fingers crossed.

 

[SimTourist]

With GT7 (which I'm currently playing) I can see it's cross-platform model and the PS5 version now sits in the middle in graphics and performance (PS4-PS5-PS5 Pro). But whenever PS6 shows up, GT7 won't be able to scale further, and they will need to develop another game to match the higher specs (and finally leave PS4).

Why not? They can add RTGI and RT shadows to make use of PS6 hardware, increase car and track lods and draw distance, that alone will suck up most of the power jump PS6 will provide. Add framegen to boost the framerate to 240 fps and beyond.

 

[pez2k]

Personally, I see any relaunch or resumption of support for FM8 as wishful thinking - if MS decide they want to start investing time and money into the series again then they're going to want players to pay £60 for a new game rather than £0 for a new update.

I don't think that article quote says anything new either. He's asked if Halo and FM are dead, and he answers no, Halo has a new game in the works. The only part of it about FM is an excuse for why they sacked lots of people and implying that the remaining staff are a support team for FH6, which was already known.

 

[Morbid65]

If it's true that FM is still alive, they have to do something to prove it. Phil Spencer's words are not enough.

Very much agree, and I have a hard time believing the future is bright if they can't even be bothered to make some kind of effort at positive communication. If everyone is saying the game is dead, time to move on, etc and that wasn't true, I don't see why they would just let that continue to be the "narrative" or whatever you want to call it. If it's true that assisting FH6 is causing the lack of updates and they will resume after FH6 launches, that's fine, just say that.

I don't really see a "re-launch" or whatever of the game happening either. A game like this with a sorta service model on a platform like GamePass where "eNgAgEmEnT" is supposed to be important likely doesn't survive a big lull in content and basically zero communication about the future from developers. All the effort that it would take to re-ignite the game would likely see better return as a new title than a free update for an existing abandoned title.

The only way I could see a sort of re-launch happening is if they acted fast, before more people wander off to new upcoming titles, and if it was launched alongside a second Car Pass or whatever they called it or something like that, where some income would be created to make the title appear sustainable... But charging for content on a game with a questionable future likely wouldn't go over well with some, as it could also look like a last-ditch cash grab the remaining left over content they had.

 

[sirjim73]

Personally, I see any relaunch or resumption of support for FM8 as wishful thinking - if MS decide they want to start investing time and money into the series again then they're going to want players to pay £60 for a new game rather than £0 for a new update.

I don't think that article quote says anything new either. He's asked if Halo and FM are dead, and he answers no, Halo has a new game in the works. The only part of it about FM is an excuse for why they sacked lots of people and implying that the remaining staff are a support team for FH6, which was already known.

I agree - his answer is clever. He drops in the good news first (there will be a new Halo game - I wonder if the 2026 release on PS5 is partly to fund that and also prep the PS5 market for the next game, the same thing has happened with FH5 releasing on PS5 to help fund FH6 I believe). And then says nothing new at all about FM.

ALL he says is Turn10 are assisting with the incoming FH6 which we already knew.

He DOESN'T SAY:
1. There will be more new content for FM after FH6 releases.
2. There will be a new FM game.
3. Turn10 will still exist after finishing their support for FH6.

I do agree that the game seems well constructed to be able to add to it further more easily. But as suggested above, that ONLY happens if the game generates more income. Currently, its not generating as much as they want (otherwise it would still be funded for updates) so any new meaningful content (I believe) would have to be paid DLC. Which would have to be expected to sell well enough to be worth the effort.