''Forza'' ( , ;

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

for "force" and "strength") is a series of

simulation A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulations require the use of models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or process, whereas the ...

racing game Racing games are a video game genre in which the player participates in a racing competition. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to fantastical settings. They are distributed along a spectrum between more realistic ra ...

s for

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by th ...

consoles, Microsoft Windows,

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

and Android devices published by

Xbox Game Studios Xbox Game Studios (previously known as Microsoft Studios, Microsoft Game Studios, and Microsoft Games) is an American video game publisher and part of the Microsoft Gaming division based in Redmond, Washington. It was established in March 2000 ...

. The series seeks to emulate the performance and handling characteristics of many real-life production, modified and racing cars. The franchise is primarily divided into two ongoing titles; the original ''Forza Motorsport'' series developed by American developer Turn 10 Studios, which focuses on primarily professional-style track racing events and series around a variety of both real and fictional tracks, and the ''Forza Horizon'' series developed by British developer

Playground Games Playground Games Limited is a British video game developer based in Leamington Spa, England. It is known for developing the '' Forza Horizon'' series, which is part of the larger ''Forza'' franchise. In 2018, Playground Games became part of Mi ...

, which revolves around a fictional racing and music festival called the "Horizon Festival" and features open world environments set in fictional representations of real world areas in which players may freely roam and participate in racing events. ''Forza'' is the sixth best-selling racing franchise with about 16 million copies sold as of April 2021. It is also one of the highest-grossing video game franchises overall, and has garnered critical acclaim.

History

Turn 10 Studios was established in 2001 by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...

, under its

Microsoft Game Studios Xbox Game Studios (previously known as Microsoft Studios, Microsoft Game Studios, and Microsoft Games) is an American video game publisher and part of the Microsoft Gaming division based in Redmond, Washington. It was established in March 2000, ...

division, to develop a series of

s, which later became known as ''Forza'', as the Xbox rival to '' Gran Turismo'' for

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a di ...

. At the time of the studio's establishment, most staff had experience in publishing games, such as ''

Project Gotham Racing ''Project Gotham Racing'' (''PGR'') is a series of racing video games developed by Bizarre Creations and published by Microsoft Studios (Xbox and Xbox 360) and Sega (Dreamcast). The series appeared on the Dreamcast, Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles, ...

'' and ''Golf 4.0'', but had not been involved in game development. The first ''Forza Motorsport'' was designed to showcase the technological capabilities of Microsoft's first console, the

original Xbox The Xbox is a home video game console and the first installment in the Xbox series of video game consoles manufactured by Microsoft. It was released as Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console market on November 15, 2001, in North Amer ...

, including its

Xbox Live The Xbox network, formerly and still sometimes branded as Xbox Live, is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft. It was first made available to the Xbox system on November 15, 2002. An u ...

online multiplayer network. From the start, Turn 10's approach to the series has been to broaden its appeal to the general audience and not limit it to racing enthusiasts, passionately highlighting

car culture Since the start of the twentieth century, the role of cars has become highly important, though controversial. They are used throughout the world and have become the most popular mode of transport in many of the more developed countries. In dev ...

along the way. Also integral to the series' development is the considerable amount of research put into the race cars' handling, sometimes involving professional race teams as of

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship ...

and

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and h ...

. Every ''Forza'' title includes an

artificial neural network Artificial neural networks (ANNs), usually simply called neural networks (NNs) or neural nets, are computing systems inspired by the biological neural networks that constitute animal brains. An ANN is based on a collection of connected units ...

used by its AI racers, called Drivatars, a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsMicrosoft Research Cambridge to learn and adapt to the player's driving. In early ''Forza'' titles, the Drivatars ran on a

Bayesian neural network Artificial neural networks (ANNs), usually simply called neural networks (NNs) or neural nets, are computing systems inspired by the biological neural networks that constitute animal brains. An ANN is based on a collection of connected units ...

, which calculates possible solutions to a problem and their probabilities based on player data collected from previous races before selecting the one with the highest confidence value. Such a problem may be reaching a certain turn, at which point the appropriate angle at which to turn and the amount of pressure on the accelerator must be determined. Initially, the only way to share the learned Drivatars was to copy them onto Xbox Memory Units for use by other Xbox consoles. Since '' Forza Motorsport 5'', the Drivatars have used a

reinforcement learning Reinforcement learning (RL) is an area of machine learning concerned with how intelligent agents ought to take actions in an environment in order to maximize the notion of cumulative reward. Reinforcement learning is one of three basic machine ...

paradigm, and have recorded racing data of all players connected to the

cloud In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may ...

as part of the Xbox Network. In this paradigm, the Drivatars track the player's car position and speed and the consistency of the behavior and guess their turn angle and speed for a given segment, enabling the Drivatars to infer solutions for courses the player had not yet raced on and input for cars the player had not yet raced with. The data is then uploaded to the cloud to update the Drivatar behavior, and the new Drivatars are then downloaded to other Xbox consoles. Each upload is timestamped, and older uploads are treated with less confidence. There have been concerns that players could abuse the system to rubber-band the Drivatars' AI back to them, but Turn 10 has stated that the only thing that is rubber-banded are their cars, whose performance is slightly modified based on how far they are ahead of or behind the player. Turn 10 inserted a layer of control between player and AI inputs that allows for the developers to modify Drivatar behavior so as to prevent unexpected results. Initially, Turn 10 designed models for cars and tracks using

commercial off-the-shelf Commercial off-the-shelf or commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS) products are packaged or canned (ready-made) hardware or software, which are adapted aftermarket to the needs of the purchasing organization, rather than the commissioning of ...

software such as

3D Studio Max Autodesk 3ds Max, formerly 3D Studio and 3D Studio Max, is a professional 3D computer graphics program for making 3D animations, models, games and images. It is developed and produced by Autodesk Media and Entertainment. It has modeling capabi ...

. Today, it develops and uses a proprietary

3D modelling In 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling is the process of developing a mathematical coordinate-based representation of any surface of an object (inanimate or living) in three dimensions via specialized software by manipulating edges, vertices, ...

software called Fuel that allows multiple artists to work on the same model simultaneously, primarily those for cars and racing tracks. Due to increasing complexity of video games, it took six months for four people to design a single car model for

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

versions of ''Forza'', so Turn 10 came to rely on car manufacturers to share CAD files, scan real-life cars, or send out a photographer to take hundreds or thousands of photographs of newly launched cars. Playground Games was co-founded in 2009 in

Leamington Spa Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or simply Leamington (), is a spa town and civil parish in Warwickshire, England. Originally a small village called Leamington Priors, it grew into a spa town in the 18th century following ...

, England, by Gavin Raeburn, Trevor Williams, and Ralph Fulton, all former employees of

Codemasters The Codemasters Software Company Limited (trade name: Codemasters) is a British video game developer based in Southam, England, which is a subsidiary of American corporation Electronic Arts. Founded by brothers Richard and David Darling in Octo ...

. Raeburn was known for his role in developing critical hits such as the ''

Dirt Dirt is an unclean matter, especially when in contact with a person's clothes, skin, or possessions. In such cases, they are said to become dirty. Common types of dirt include: * Debris: scattered pieces of waste or remains * Dust: a genera ...

'' and ''TOCA'' series, but he became inspired by the open world environment of ''

Test Drive Unlimited ''Test Drive Unlimited'' is an open world racing video game developed by Eden Games and published by Atari, Inc. (1993–present), Atari for Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows. Krome Studios Melbourne, Atari Melbourne House developed the PlayStatio ...

'', and so left Codemasters feeling that it lacked the resources to fulfill his ambitions. Other members of Playground have included former employees of

Bizarre Creations Bizarre Creations Limited was a British video game development studio based in Liverpool, best known for their racing titles '' Metropolis Street Racer'' ( Dreamcast) and the follow-up ''Project Gotham Racing'' series (Xbox, Xbox 360, mobile ph ...

Black Rock Studio Black Rock Studio Limited was a British video game developer based in Brighton, England. It was a division of Disney Interactive Studios. The studio was founded by Tony Beckwith in 1998 as Pixel Planet. It was acquired by the Climax Group in ...

, and Sony Liverpool—all racing game companies of the United Kingdom. At the same time, Turn 10 Studios began seeking out businsesses in hopes of finding one willing to expand and branch out its franchise. At

E3 2010 The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2010 (E3 2010) was the 16th E3 held. The event took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California. It began on June 14, 2010, and ended on June 17, 2010, with 45,600 total attendees. Ther ...

, he and Williams offered Turn 10 a concept of an open-world ''Forza Motorsport'' in exchange for resources, to which Turn 10 agreed. Playground then developed what was to become ''Forza Horizon'', collaborating with and closely backed by Turn 10. Playground Games had had a strong relationship as a third-party developer with Microsoft Studios, but it was only in a June 10 conference at

E3 2018 The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2018 (E3 2018) was the 24th E3, during which hardware manufacturers, software developers, and publishers from the video game industry presented new and upcoming products to the attendees, primarily retailers a ...

that the company announced its acquisition by Microsoft. Until 2019, each installment of the franchise series had alternated on a biennial basis; the ''Motorsport'' entries were released in odd-numbered years, while the ''Horizon'' entries were released in even-numbered years. This pattern was altered due to the absence of a new ''Motorsport'' game in 2019.

ForzaTech

ForzaTech is the proprietary

video game engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games and generally includes relevant libraries and support programs. The "engine" terminology is similar to the term "software engine" used in the software in ...

created by Turn 10 Studios, and it is the main engine used for the ''Forza'' series. The game engine was trademarked by Microsoft in 2015 and has since been used to develop current ''Forza'' games.

Titles

''Motorsport''

''Forza Motorsport'' (2005)

''Forza Motorsport'' was released on May 3, 2005, and is the first installment in the ''Forza Motorsport'' series. It is the only title in the series to be released on the original Xbox console. It features 231 cars and racetracks from 15 real-world and fictional locations. Common elements established by this game for future ''Forza'' titles include effects of damage on car performance, a paint job and decal editor, the ability to tune one's car and purchase upgrades using in-game credits won at previous races, and assist functions that make driving easier but at the cost of bonus end-of-race credits. It also supported online multiplayer via Xbox Live, as have all of its successors. The

Honda NSX The Honda NSX, marketed in North America as the Acura NSX, is a two-seat, mid-engined coupe sports car manufactured by Honda. The origins of the NSX trace back to 1984, with the HP-X (Honda Pininfarina eXperimental) concept, which was a mid-en ...

and a tuned

Nissan 350Z : The Nissan 350Z (known as Nissan Fairlady Z (Z33) in Japan) is a two-door, two-seater sports car that was manufactured by Nissan Motor Corporation from 2002 until 2009 and marks the fifth generation of Nissan's Z-car line. The 350Z entered pro ...

are the cover vehicles. It is playable on the Xbox 360 via

backwards compatibility Backward compatibility (sometimes known as backwards compatibility) is a property of an operating system, product, or technology that allows for interoperability with an older legacy system, or with input designed for such a system, especially i ...

''Forza Motorsport 2'' (2007)

The sequel to ''Forza Motorsport'' and the first Xbox 360 title in the series, ''Forza Motorsport 2'', was released on May 29, 2007. It features a total of 349 cars and 23 different circuits from twelve locations. The series' support for force feedback first appears in this installment (Microsoft's Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel was designed to work with the game and support that feature). Car customization is also expanded; there are about 50 percent more parts and upgrades than in the previous installment, up to 4,100 vinyls can be applied to any car, and cars can be sold online with custom skins for in-game credits in the game's new auction house. The system that groups cars into letter-based classes based on their performance, expressed as a numerical performance index, now takes into account changes to one's car that make it more or less powerful, raising or lowering the index and possibly reclassifying the car. Prior to the game's release, Microsoft launched ''Forza Motorsport Showdown'', a four-part TV miniseries on

Speed In everyday use and in kinematics, the speed (commonly referred to as ''v'') of an object is the magnitude of the change of its position over time or the magnitude of the change of its position per unit of time; it is thus a scalar quantity ...

. The show was produced by Bud Brutsman and hosted by

Lee Reherman Lee Reherman (July 4, 1966 – March 1, 2016) was an American actor, appearing in television and film and hosting television reality shows. Early life Reherman was born on July 4, 1966, in Louisville, Kentucky. He attended Cornell University, ...

. A tuned

Nissan 350z : The Nissan 350Z (known as Nissan Fairlady Z (Z33) in Japan) is a two-door, two-seater sports car that was manufactured by Nissan Motor Corporation from 2002 until 2009 and marks the fifth generation of Nissan's Z-car line. The 350Z entered pro ...

is the cover vehicle.

''Forza Motorsport 3'' (2009)

''Forza Motorsport 3'', released on October 27, 2009, includes more than 400 cars from 50 manufacturers and about 100 race track variations.

Sport utility vehicle A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles, such as raised ground clearance and four-wheel drive. There is no commonly agreed-upon definit ...

s and

stock car Stock car racing is a form of automobile racing run on oval tracks and road courses measuring approximately . It originally used production-model cars, hence the name "stock car", but is now run using cars specifically built for racing. It ori ...

s make their debut in this game's car roster. The game introduces more optional assists aimed at making driving less challenging for less-experienced players. One of them is the rewind feature, which allows the player to turn back time to fix any previous mistake made on the track. Auto-braking brakes the player's car to prevent it from skidding off the track at turns, and the auto-tuner automatically tunes the car's aspects. The career mode has been revised for this edition of ''Forza Motorsport'' to contain 250 events, some of which involve two new modes: drag racing and drifting. It is also the first game in the franchise to feature a cockpit camera, as well as the ability to capture, edit, and share clips of gameplay. The

Audi R8 The Audi R8 is a mid-engine, 2-seater sports car, which uses Audi's trademark quattro permanent all-wheel drive system. It was introduced by the German car manufacturer Audi AG in 2006. The car is exclusively designed, developed, and manufactu ...

is the cover vehicle.

''Forza Motorsport 4'' (2011)

For ''Forza Motorsport 4'', which was released on October 11, 2011, Turn 10 Studios partnered with BBC's '' Top Gear'' to get

Jeremy Clarkson Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson (born 11 April 1960) is an English broadcaster, journalist, game show host and writer who specialises in motoring. He is best known for the motoring programmes ''Top Gear'' and ''The Grand Tour'' alongside Rich ...

to provide commentary for the new Autovista mode, which allows players to explore a certain selection of cars in great detail. The game is also the first in the franchise to utilize the

Kinect Kinect is a line of motion sensing input devices produced by Microsoft and first released in 2010. The devices generally contain RGB cameras, and infrared projectors and detectors that map depth through either structured light or time of fl ...

sensor. Players can utilize the sensor to turn their head to either side, and the game dynamically follows in a similar motion, turning the game camera to the side. It is the final ''Forza Motorsport'' released for Xbox 360. The 2009

Ferrari 458 The Ferrari 458 Italia (Type F142) is a mid-engine sports car produced by Ferrari. The F458 is the successor of the F430, and was first officially unveiled at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show. It was succeeded by the 488 GTB (Gran Turismo Ber ...

is the cover vehicle.

''Forza Motorsport 5'' (2013)

''Forza Motorsport 5'', the fifth installment in the ''Motorsport'' series and the sixth in the ''Forza'' series, was released as an

launch title on November 22, 2013. The game expanded on the ''Top Gear'' partnership by having

Richard Hammond Richard Mark Hammond (born 19 December 1969) is an English journalist, television presenter, mechanic, and writer. He is best known for co-hosting the BBC Two motoring programme '' Top Gear'' from 2002 until 2015 with Jeremy Clarkson and ...

and

James May James Daniel May (born 16 January 1963) is an English television presenter and journalist. He is best known as a co-presenter of the motoring programme ''Top Gear'' alongside Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond from 2003 until 2015. He also s ...

provide commentary alongside Clarkson. The Autovista mode was renamed Forzavista, and new to the series are

open-wheel car An open-wheel single-seater (often known as formula car) is a car with the wheels outside the car's main body, and usually having only one seat. Open-wheel cars contrast with street cars, sports cars, stock cars, and touring cars, which have th ...

s and integrated cloud computing, which collects and uses driving data from connected players to shape Drivatar behavior and through which user-generated paint jobs can be downloaded. Responding to inquiries about the amount of content featured in the game, Turn 10 Studios' Dan Greenawalt explained that the company emphasized quality after determining that the cars and tracks it had designed needed improvement in advance of the next generation of consoles. The result was a decrease to 203 cars (excluding three from the Limited Edition Day One Version) and 14 tracks and the two inventories being redesigned, some entirely, using laser-scanning technology. The 2013

McLaren P1 The McLaren P1 is a limited-production mid-engine plug-in hybrid sports car produced by British automobile manufacturer McLaren Automotive. Debuted at the 2012 Paris Motor Show, sales of the P1 began in the United Kingdom in October 2013 and al ...

is the cover vehicle.

''Forza Motorsport 6'' (2015)

''Forza Motorsport 6'', released for Xbox One on September 15, 2015, introduces new gameplay elements such as racing in the rain or at night, an online ranking system called Leagues that matches players based on their skill level, and game-modifying cards. The game increases the number of racers in any race to 24, and has a much richer selection of cars and locations than its predecessor—460 and 26, respectively. Players can also now choose whether to toggle the Drivatars' aggression. A cut-down, free-to-play

Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It is the direct successor to Windows 8.1, which was released nearly two years earlier. It was released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on ...

version of the game, known as ''Forza Motorsport 6: Apex'', was released on September 6, 2016, as "a focused and curated single-player tour of ''Forza Motorsport''s best content". The 2017

Ford GT The Ford GT is a mid-engine two-seater sports car manufactured and marketed by American automobile manufacturer Ford for the 2005 model year in conjunction with the company's 2003 centenary. The second generation Ford GT became available for ...

super-car is the cover vehicle. On September 15, 2019, it was made unavailable for purchase due to the expiration of various car and track licenses.

''Forza Motorsport 7'' (2017)

''Forza Motorsport 7'' was developed for Windows 10 and Xbox One. The game was released on October 3, 2017. This game includes many tracks, including the return of Maple Valley Raceway, the fictional track last included in ''Forza Motorsport 4''. ''Forza Motorsport 7'' has the largest set of playable vehicles of any ''Forza'' game to date, at 830 cars. 700 cars are included in the base game, while 130 were later added as

downloadable content Downloadable content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can either be added for no extra cost or it can be a form of video game monetization, enabli ...

. The 2018

Porsche 911 GT2 RS The Porsche 911 GT2 is a high-performance, track-focused sports car built by the German automobile manufacturer Porsche from 1993 to 2009, and then since 2010 as the GT2 RS. It is based on the 911 Turbo, and uses a similar twin-turbocharged engi ...

is the cover vehicle.

''Forza Motorsport'' (2023)

The eighth ''Forza Motorsport'', which has no number in its title, was announced during Microsoft's Xbox Games Showcase on July 23, 2020. It is set to release in Q2 2023.

''Horizon''

''Forza Horizon'' (2012)

''Forza Horizon'' was developed for the Xbox 360 and is the first open-world game in the series. It is based around a fictitious festival called the Horizon Festival, set in the U.S. state of

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

. The game incorporates many different gameplay aspects from previous ''Forza Motorsport'' titles, like the large variety of cars, realistic physics and high definition graphics. The aim is to progress through the game by means of obtaining wristbands by driving fast, destroying property, winning races and other driving antics. ''Horizon'' features the physics of ''Forza Motorsport 4'', which have been optimised to work on the more than 65 variants of terrain said to be present in the game. Players can drive off-road in select areas, while others are limited by guardrails or other means. ''Horizon'' allows the player to modify the car that is selected from the garage by changing numerous features both internally and externally on a car. One can also obtain cars by winning races with random drivers on the street, by winning larger competitive races, and by finding barns housing hidden treasure cars that cannot otherwise be bought through the game's "Auto-show" or through racing. The 2013 Dodge SRT Viper GTS is the cover car. The game is backwards-compatible with the Xbox One and the Xbox Series X/S.

''Forza Horizon 2'' (2014)

''Forza Horizon 2'' was developed for the Xbox 360 and Xbox One. The game is set in

Southern France Southern France, also known as the South of France or colloquially in French as , is a defined geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the Atlantic Ocean south of the Marais Poitevin,Louis Papy, ''Le midi atlantique'', A ...

and

Northern Italy Northern Italy ( it, Italia settentrionale, it, Nord Italia, label=none, it, Alta Italia, label=none or just it, Nord, label=none) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. It consists of eight administrative Regions ...

, and the playing field is three times the map of its predecessor. The Xbox 360 version was developed by

Sumo Digital is a form of competitive full-contact wrestling where a ''rikishi'' (wrestler) attempts to force his opponent out of a circular ring ('' dohyō'') or into touching the ground with any body part other than the soles of his feet (usually by th ...

, and is the final ''Forza'' game for Xbox 360. The Xbox One version introduced dynamic weather and lighting systems to the series. Both versions feature day-and-night cycles and cross-country races of up to 12 players and two "Bucket Lists", one for France and the other for Italy. Bucket Lists are lists of location-specific challenges involving certain vehicles for the player to complete, such as driving a Ford Raptor through a forest with only headlights to light the player's way. Additionally, its single-player and multiplayer modes have merged to allow for seamless connectivity, where other players can join in or drop out of the host's session without interrupting the latter's progress. In this edition of ''Forza Horizon'', "Car Meets" serves as an online hub for players to compare their cars and share their own designs or tunes for others to use, as well as socialize and challenge each other in showdown races. The 2014 Lamborghini Huracán LP 610-4 was the cover car.

''Forza Horizon 3'' (2016)

''Forza Horizon 3'' was released for Xbox One and Windows 10 on September 27, 2016. Its support for

Xbox Play Anywhere The Xbox network, formerly and still sometimes branded as Xbox Live, is an Internet, online multiplayer video game, multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft. It was first made available to the Xbox ...

makes it the first ''Forza'' title to allow cross-play on the two Microsoft platforms. The game is set in Australia, and has the player represented in the game as the host of the Horizon Festival itself. Its topography, car roster, and cast of player avatars have all diversified. For the first time, the terrain includes sand and deep bodies of water that can be driven on or into, and the car roster, which is expanded to 350 cars, encompasses off-road racing buggies and trophy trucks. The single-player campaign mode adds

co-op A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

, in which up to three players join the host to complete the latter's objectives. Progression is kept regardless of which mode campaign is played in. A new mode called Horizon Blueprint allows players to edit events by changing their routes, number thereof, and time of day and determining which cars are eligible for the events. An expansion titled ''Blizzard Mountain'' was released on December 13, 2016, featuring a snow area along with the name giving blizzard storms, eight new cars, and the 2016

Ford Focus RS The Ford Focus is a compact car (C-segment in Europe) manufactured by Ford Motor Company since 1998. It was created under Alexander Trotman's Ford 2000 plan, which aimed to globalize model development and sell one compact vehicle worldwide. The ...

RX as its cover vehicle. A second expansion themed around ''Hot Wheels'' was released on May 9, 2017. This expansion features a new area called "Thrilltopia" and adds orange and blue Hot Wheels track with loops, jumps, corkscrews, boost pads, half-pipes and more. The expansion also includes ten new cars. The Hot Wheels

Twin Mill Hot Wheels is an American brand of scale model cars introduced by American toymaker Mattel in 1968. It was the primary competitor of Matchbox until 1997, when Mattel bought Tyco Toys, then owner of Matchbox. Many automobile manufacturers ha ...

is the cover vehicle. The 2016 Lamborghini Centenario LP 770-4 and the 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor Race Truck were the cover cars.

''Forza Horizon 4'' (2018)

''Forza Horizon 4'' was developed for the Xbox One and Windows 10 and released on October 2, 2018. The game is set in parts of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

, and features over 450 cars from more than one hundred manufacturers. It introduces a dynamic four-season scheme that rotates on a weekly basis and changes aspects of the environment, such as rivers drying in the summer. Places such as the

Edinburgh Castle Edinburgh Castle is a historic castle in Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland. It stands on Castle Rock (Edinburgh), Castle Rock, which has been occupied by humans since at least the Iron Age, although the nature of the early settlement is unclear. ...

can now be purchased as property, unlocking benefits. For the first time, players are given the option to traverse the same world as others in single-player on a 72-player server. The 2018

McLaren Senna The McLaren Senna is a limited-production mid-engined sports car manufactured by McLaren Automotive. The car is the third addition in the ''McLaren Ultimate Series'', joining the F1 and the P1; however, it is not a direct successor to either ...

and the 1997

Land Rover Defender 90 The Land Rover Defender (initially introduced as the Land Rover 110 / One Ten, and in 1984 joined by the Land Rover 90 / Ninety, plus the new, extra-length Land Rover 127 in 1985) is a series of British off-road cars and pickup trucks. They co ...

are the cover cars. Shortly after launch, Turn 10 released a patch that added Route Creator, where players draw custom point-to-point and circuit racing routes and place their checkpoints on the map.

''Forza Horizon 5'' (2021)

''Forza Horizon 5'' was developed and released for the Xbox One,

Xbox Series X/S The Xbox Series X/S are home video game consoles developed by Microsoft. They were both released on November 10, 2020, as the fourth generation Xbox, succeeding the Xbox One. Along with Sony's PlayStation 5, also released in November 2020 ...

, and Windows 10 on November 9, 2021, and is set in

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

. The seasons return, but to account for Mexico's diverse landscape, different parts of the map have their own weather that rotates seasonally. A new mode called Events Lab allows players to create races with their own rules and objectives. Also new is Forza Link, an AI assistant that tracks one's progress and preferred means of playing the game and the players they meet online. It then uses that information to match players with statistically similar interests. The Mercedes-AMG One and the 2021

Ford Bronco The Ford Bronco is a model line of sport utility vehicles manufactured and marketed by Ford. The first SUV model developed by the company, five generations of the Bronco were sold from the 1966 to 1996 model years. A sixth generation of the m ...

Badlands are the cover cars.

Spin-offs

''Forza Street'' (2019–2022)

''Forza Street'' was a

free-to-play Free-to-play (F2P or FtP) video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content without paying or do not require paying to continue playing. Free-to-play is distinct from traditional commercial software, which ...

racing game developed by Electric Square that was initially released for Windows 10 as ''Miami Street'' on May 8, 2018. The game was re-branded as a ''Forza'' title on April 15, 2019, and was also released for

and Android on May 5, 2020. ''Forza Street'' uses

Unreal Engine 4 Unreal Engine (UE) is a 3D computer graphics game engine developed by Epic Games, first showcased in the 1998 first-person shooter game ''Unreal (1998 video game), Unreal''. Initially developed for Personal computer, PC first-person shooters, i ...

, unlike the series' in-house engine, ForzaTech. Unlike the main ''Motorsport'' and ''Horizon'' titles, ''Street'' features short, quick street races, and is meant to be played on low-end devices. Gameplay involves players controlling only the acceleration and braking by pressing and releasing a button or a touch screen; steering is handled automatically. Players can also use nitrous to give their cars a speed boost. There is no definite cover car, as the app icon changed the cars out based on what special event was going on. ''Forza Street''s reviews were mixed. Although its visuals were praised, it was criticized for its overly simplistic controls, its implementation of the

freemium Freemium, a portmanteau of the words "free" and "premium," is a pricing strategy by which a basic product or service is provided free of charge, but money (a premium) is charged for additional features, services, or virtual (online) or physical ...

model, and tedious gameplay. Critics rank it as the worst title on their lists of ''Forza'' games that include the spin-off. On January 10, 2022, Andy Beaudoin, a principal design director at Turn 10 Studios, announced the closure of ''Forza Street'' in spring 2022, due to the "shift its focus to new and exciting ''Forza'' experiences." The game received its final update on the same date, reducing the energy recharge time, increasing energy storage, reducing wait times for car shows, reducing prices on most items purchasable using in-game currency, and disabling the purchasing of microtransactions, refunding customers who purchased any microtransations in the last 30 days prior to the in-app store's closure. The game was shut down on April 11, 2022.

Reception

The ''Forza'' series is viewed as one of the most recognized brands of the racing genre. The games sold over 10 million copies by August 2014 and 16 million copies as of April 2021, becoming the sixth best-selling racing franchise. It is also one of the highest-grossing video game franchises, grossing over

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1 billion at retail by December 2016. Individually, ''Forza Motorsport 3'' sold 3 million units by February 2010. ''Forza Motorsport 5'' was bought by over one third of all Xbox One owners in February 2014, which ''

Eurogamer ''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 and owned by alongside formed company Gamer Network. Its editor-in-chief is Martin Robinson. Since 2008, it is known for the formerly eponymous games trade fair EGX ...

'' estimates amounts to 1.3 million copies. By December 2016, around 2.5 million ''Forza Horizon 3'' units were sold. Over 14 million unique players were registered in the ''Forza'' community on Xbox One and Windows 10 by December 2016. The first ''Forza Motorsport'' received critical acclaim for its realistic handling mechanics, paint job editor—both features that have reappeared in every subsequent version of ''Forza''—and Xbox Live integration. Additional assists in ''Forza Motorsport 3''s such as the rewind ability were praised. Reviewers also lauded ''Forza Motorsport 4''s Autovista mode. The franchise as a whole has received generally favorable reviews. Every main title in the ''Forza Motorsport'' and ''Forza Horizon'' series has received an aggregate review score of at least 80 out of 100 on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

; the only exception is ''Forza Motorsport 5'', which at launch received criticism for featuring fewer cars and tracks compared to its predecessors (though some of the content withdrawn from the final release reappeared in the form of DLCs), as well as microtransactions in which players could purchase in-game tokens to progress faster, to the latter of which Turn 10 Studios responded by increasing rewards won at the end of a race and decreasing car prices. The concept of ''Forza Horizon'' received positive remarks for demonstrating the potential that the new series had, although the game's Drivatars' AI and sparse multiplayer were criticized. As of August 2019, ''Forza Horizon 4'' surpassed 12 million players. The ''Horizon'' series has since outperformed the ''Motorsport'' games, which despite their technical leaps have struggled to replicate the former's success for not being substantially different and as trends show that players prefer ''Horizon''s gameplay. The series is notable for employing one of the longest-running applications of machine learning in gaming for its AI. Since ''Horizon 3'', the ''Forza Horizon'' series have been a perennial winner of Best Sports/Racing Game at

The Game Awards The Game Awards is an annual awards ceremony honoring achievements in the video game industry. Established in 2014, the shows are produced and hosted by game journalist Geoff Keighley, who worked on its predecessor, the Spike Video Game Award ...

References

External links

* {{Xbox Game Studios Forza Microsoft franchises Video game franchises Video game franchises introduced in 2005