Forza Horizon 4 looks big. It’s set in the United Kingdom, it’ll feature a full year’s worth of seasons, and will arrive with over 450 cars. From the sounds of it, Microsoft expects the game to be big on the sales charts, too.
“Forza, the franchise, has every year broken previous-year records, so I expect Forza Horizon 4 to be the best-selling Forza we’ve probably ever launched,” said Aaron Greenberg, GM of games marketing, in a recent interview with GameReactor. “I mean, in many ways Forza Horizon 4 is like an open-world game first and a racing game second, and so that is a great opportunity for us.”
It’s a bullish statement, but not one without merit. While up-to-date sales figures aren’t publicly available, we do know 2016’s Horizon 3 hit 2.5 million units way back in February 2017. That was before the Hot Wheels Expansion, which featured heavily in subsequent console bundles with the base game. This year’s Horizon will continue that approach, with Microsoft announcing two different FH4 bundles for the game’s October 2 launch.
At E3 2018, Playground Games’ Ralph Fulton revealed that over nine million people had played Forza Horizon 3. It isn’t a sales figure, but it shows the level of appeal the sub-brand has. In fact, a quick glance at Twitch and Mixer tends to show more players streaming (and watching) FH3 than its newer, sim-oriented brother, Forza Motorsport 7.
The arcade racing genre could use a shot in the arm. While we enjoyed its unique approach in our review, Codemaster’s Onrush failed to light up the sales charts, resulting in lay-offs. The venerable Need for Speed franchise is taking 2018 off, though we expect it to be back in a big way for its quarter-century anniversary next year. In terms of new releases, Forza Horizon 4 basically has the genre to itself this autumn.
Will FH4 maintain Playground’s upwards trajectory? We’ll find out soon enough. Stay tuned for more on the game leading up to its October 2 launch.
See more articles on Gamescom 2018.
