WindowsCentral: Forza Horizon 6 might be announced at TGS end of September

[GlamFM]

We've seen official, widely circulated documents strongly suggesting that Forza Horizon 6 is actually planned to be announced during 2025's Tokyo Game Show, an annual gaming-focused conference kicking off in Japan toward the end of September.

This year's TGS is set to be the largest in the event's history, and Xbox has already confirmed it'll be attending — and announcing. With the Tokyo Game Show focused on the Japanese gaming market, choosing to reveal Forza Horizon 6 here rather than at events like Gamescom only makes sense if the game is, in fact, set in Japan.

The Forza Horizon 6 leak everyone’s talking about

Forza Horizon 6 rumors are starting up again, and Windows Central can add to the fires with our own info — FH6 may be announced later this year.

www.windowscentral.com

Maybe time to open a Forza Horizon 6 sub-forum?

 

[Nacho Libre]

Time for a heartfelt "Farewell Mexico" mariachi song?

 

[RazorSharkz]

What a hell of a ride it's been with Horizon 5. I hope I find reasons to revisit Mexico even after a new game is out

 

[Nacho Libre]

What a hell of a ride it's been with Horizon 5. I hope I find reasons to revisit Mexico even after a new game is out

With all the FH games starting from FH2 I deleted my original data at some point and restarted my career.

 

[Famine]

The Forza Horizon 6 leak everyone’s talking about

Forza Horizon 6 rumors are starting up again, and Windows Central can add to the fires with our own info — FH6 may be announced later this year.

www.windowscentral.com

Maybe time to open a Forza Horizon 6 sub-forum?

They may be right, they may be wrong, but filling your article with this much hedging from supposed "official" documents it doesn't inspire confidence in the veracity of their information:

Forza Horizon 6 could be heading to Japan — and the reveal may be sooner than you think

A deleted post and insider docs may have just revealed FH6’s biggest surprise. And Windows Central has reason to believe an announcement is planned for this year.

Forza Horizon 6 could be announced this year

We've seen official, widely circulated documents strongly suggesting that Forza Horizon 6 is actually planned to be announced during 2025's Tokyo Game Show

I've not seen these "official documents", but when was the last time you saw official documents about what your company would be doing in four weeks' time that "suggested" what it was, and used this much could/may language?


That notwithstanding:

Fans have been waiting for news of Forza Horizon 6 for ages now, and we even got a tease from Xbox's Phil Spencer that we may see the hotly anticipated sequel in 2026.

Anyone remember what it was Spencer said precisely? I do, and it didn't include the word Horizon - even though we pretty much all think that was what he was talking about. I'm still intrigued why he chose to say "Forza" and not be any more specific. And he said it twice.


As for an FH6 forum, let's visit that when they announce it.

 

[GTboyz]

Tom Henderson also chimed in at the rumour.

 

[Famine]

Tom Henderson also chimed in at the rumour.

And far less hedging ...

 

[nukleabomb]

Seems like Worlds do Collide

 

[GlamFM]

They may be right, they may be wrong, but filling your article with this much hedging from supposed "official" documents it doesn't inspire confidence in the veracity of their information:


I've not seen these "official documents", but when was the last time you saw official documents about what your company would be doing in four weeks' time that "suggested" what it was, and used this much could/may language?


That notwithstanding:

Anyone remember what it was Spencer said precisely? I do, and it didn't include the word Horizon - even though we pretty much all think that was what he was talking about. I'm still intrigued why he chose to say "Forza" and not be any more specific. And he said it twice.


As for an FH6 forum, let's visit that when they announce it.

Given the quality of the sources I think that’s a lot of scepticism tbh.

I have no doubt that the docs / plans are real. The hedging certainly stems from the fact that plans can change.

I’m also 100% certain that Phil was not talking about a new Forza Motosport game when he briefly mentioned the next Forza.

Anyway. Smoke, fire yada yada yada I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough.

 

[vaultmcfly]

I hope it's at least better than FH5 and FH4 and more like FH1 - 3.

 

[GlamFM]

I hope it's at least better than FH5 and FH4 and more like FH1 - 3.

I think there’s an argument to be made for FH1 because it was quite different, but in which way are 2 & 3 better than 4 & 5?

 

[nukleabomb]

I think i have mentioned this before but FH6 being a "best of" game could do it good. This will be the first one to (likely) go to PS5 soon after launch and playing up all the hits of FH up until now while keeping all the new stuff can do it wonders. Just for the festival/progression, they can have FH1's wrist bands, FH2's road trips, FH3's Festival expansions, FH4's Seasons & Stories with FH5's Hall of Fame at the end. On its own this can be a great structure for progression.


I still think they should remove all credits and cars from wheelspins and replace them with car discount vouchers (5,10,15,25 and 50%) so that they scale with your progress in the game rather than disrupting it.

 

[Famine]

Given the quality of the sources I think that’s a lot of scepticism tbh.

I'm always sceptical - it's required for the job - but I'm not expressing any in that post. The point is that if the "quality of the sources" is so high, why write an article full of weasel words? That much equivocation actually downplays the "quality of the sources".

Again though, I've not seen these official documents myself, but I'd be surprised if they said "we may be revealing what could be FH6 at possibly TGS perhaps" - because that's not how companies communicate external media strategy for major events internally - and others who say that they have, like Tom Henderson, seem a lot less uncertain about it.

 

[nickf1gr]

Anyway apart from when it will release and of which country will represent in it i would like play it in PS5!!!

 

[Auditore]

Curious to see what japan roads will look like in Forza

 

[GTvsForza]

Seems like Worlds do Collide

I would love to see Asuka play FH6 if it is in Japan!

 

[Nacho Libre]

Curious to see what japan roads will look like in Forza

Like Fujimi Kaido in Forza Motorsports.

 

[VXR]

Like Fujimi Kaido in Forza Motorsports.

I would be very surprised if the track itself wasn't part of a Japan-based Horizon map.

 

[FT-1]

Curious to see what japan roads will look like in Forza

One approach to getting an idea of what the roads will look like is to recall the approach taken for some of the roads in Sierra Nueva, specifically the Rally Adventure DLC in FH5. The narrower, undulating winding roads would be a perfect fit for Horizon Japan.



In the past, features and map designs from expansions have been carried over to the succeeding game in the series. On that note, maybe rally stages could feature in FH6 at launch!

 

[sirjim73]

One approach to getting an idea of what the roads will look like is to recall the approach taken for some of the roads in Sierra Nueva, specifically the Rally Adventure DLC in FH5. The narrower, undulating winding roads would be a perfect fit for Horizon Japan.



In the past, features and map designs from expansions have been carried over to the succeeding game in the series. On that note, maybe rally stages could feature in FH6 at launch!

If they're carrying over stuff from FH5 expansions, let's hope it's that and they haven't made the whole map out of lego

 

[nukleabomb]

One approach to getting an idea of what the roads will look like is to recall the approach taken for some of the roads in Sierra Nueva, specifically the Rally Adventure DLC in FH5. The narrower, undulating winding roads would be a perfect fit for Horizon Japan.



In the past, features and map designs from expansions have been carried over to the succeeding game in the series. On that note, maybe rally stages could feature in FH6 at launch!

FH2's storm island, iirc, brought in cross country races and Offroad tires. These were a pretty big part of FH3's "Open" map design.
FH3's blizzard mountain, with snow, snow tires and a frozen lake, made it into the main map of FH4 as winter.
FH4's fortune island brought a mountain with a hillclimb and stormy weather (plus treasure chests and trailblazer), both of which made it into FH5's map. The Lego expansion also had a racetrack which may be also why FH5 has them.

Now, FH5's Rally Adventure has tight roads and rally races with co driver pace notes. It also has its own water, dust and sand effects which are not available on the main map. Drone shows, Anti-Lag and Launch control however made it to the base game. There is also a whole forest with fully destructible trees. IIRC the HW expansion had some rednering techniques related to reflections that were exclusive to the HW map too, not to mention the extreme biomes and elevation changes. They were definitely testing a lot of stuff for FH6.

 

[EngieDiesel]

Gonna temper everyone's expectations by reminding that being announced at a Japanese game expo (if it actually is announced there) does not automatically mean FH6 is going to be set in Japan. Granted there aren't that many locations left where a game of that scope would fit in and make sense, but maybe don't get too deep into the feature wishlisting just yet.

(now watch as it ends being set in Hong Kong because they wanted to throw shade at Test Drive Unlimited)

 

[nukleabomb]

Gonna temper everyone's expectations by reminding that being announced at a Japanese game expo (if it actually is announced there) does not automatically mean FH6 is going to be set in Japan. Granted there aren't that many locations left where a game of that scope would fit in and make sense, but maybe don't get too deep into the feature wishlisting just yet.

(now watch as it ends being set in Hong Kong because they wanted to throw shade at Test Drive Unlimited)

I'll be honest. A new FH is all I need, doesn't matter where it is. It's been 4 whole years since FH5 and FM is not doing great. There's no real arcade/simcade racers on PC right now.

Japan would be great, but would definitely not meet sky high expectations. That said, it will have the new ForzaTech from FM 23. So expect no MSAA, but options for full RTGI (maybe even Path tracing or full ray tracing), with all the new sound stuff too. The DLC features and map stuff will likely be more of a creative choice than a technical limitation, now that theres no Xbox One to support. An ubran environment could very well be on the cards, even if its not Japan.

 

[GlamFM]

Gonna temper everyone's expectations by reminding that being announced at a Japanese game expo (if it actually is announced there) does not automatically mean FH6 is going to be set in Japan. Granted there aren't that many locations left where a game of that scope would fit in and make sense, but maybe don't get too deep into the feature wishlisting just yet.

(now watch as it ends being set in Hong Kong because they wanted to throw shade at Test Drive Unlimited)

I’d say the only reason to announce it at TGS and not at a way bigger show like TGA only a few short months later would be if the game was indeed set in Japan.

 

[nukleabomb]

I’d say the only reason to announce it at TGS and not at a way bigger show like TGA only a few short months later would be if the game was indeed set in Japan.

Say the game is meant for H1 2026, so Jan-June, like the rumours say, they will have TGS (Sept), The Game Awards (Dec) and Xbox Dev Direct (Jan) are the next 3 opportunities to market the game. Xbox games showcase is the option all the way in July and past the rumour of H1 2026.

As you said, TGA (reveal of the Xbox series X) and Xbox Dev Direct are both much bigger platforms for Xbox to reveal a game, Unless the game either has Japanese devs/studio behind it or it is set in Japan. If it wasn't Japan, It could have just as easily been revealed at Xbox Games showcase 2025 (instead of COD as the "one more thing").
I do wonder if this is Xbox/PGG "leaking" stuff to build hype for TGS & FH6. But then again, the last two horizons have had their locations leaked just a month or so before the official reveal.

 

[breyzipp]

Japan would make a ton of sense. Usually the last couple of newly added cars in an EoL Forza game give a very strong hint towards the location of the next game.

cough Nissan Retro Rides Car Pack cough

 

[RazorSharkz]

I may have to get a Series X sooner than I expected (unless it launches on PS5)

 

[breyzipp]

I may have to get a Series X sooner than I expected (unless it launches on PS5)

I would expect it to be a simultaneous release on all platforms, juts like MS is doing now with Gears of War Reloaded.

 

[Auditore]

Granted there aren't that many locations left where a game of that scope would fit in and make sense

Forza Horizon 6 Ohio

 

[RazorSharkz]

Forza Horizon 6 Ohio

You joke but a map with Western Virginia could be really cool. Shenandoah National Park's Skyline Drive (115 miles of winding mountain pass) as the main attraction then Harrisonburg as the major city, which is a growing, trendy, college town with some really nice early American architecture. Plus all 4 seasons there are drastically different, maybe the best place in the entire United States to see the leaves change color for fall.