Forza Motorsport (series)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Forza'' ( , ;
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
for "force" and "strength") is a
racing video 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 raci ...
series for
Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand that consists of four main home video game console lines, as well as application software, applications (games), the streaming media, streaming service Xbox Cloud Gaming, and online services such as the Xbox networ ...
consoles and
Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
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 based in Redmond, Washington. It was established in March 2000, spun out from an internal Games Group, fo ...
. The franchise has sold 16 million copies as of December 2016 and has garnered critical acclaim. The franchise is primarily divided into two ongoing titles. The original ''Forza Motorsport'' series developed by American developer Turn 10 Studios focuses on primarily simulation racing around a variety of both real and fictional tracks, and seeks to emulate the performance and handling characteristics of many real-life production, modified, and racing cars. The ''Forza Horizon'' series developed by British developer Playground Games features more arcade-style racing while maintaining a toned down version of ''Motorsport''s simulation physics. ''Horizon'' revolves around a music festival called the "Horizon Festival" and features
open world In video games, an open world is a virtual world in which the Gamer, player can approach objectives freely, as opposed to a world with more linear and structured gameplay. Notable games in this category include ''The Legend of Zelda (video game ...
environments set in fictional representations of real-world areas in which players may freely roam and participate in racing events. Apart from ''Motorsport'' and ''Horizon'', ''Forza'' has also seen two mobile and computer free-to-play spin-offs; ''Forza Street'' (2019–2022), a
drag racing Drag racing is a type of motor racing in which automobiles or motorcycles compete, usually two at a time, to be first to cross a set finish line. The race follows a short, straight course from a standing start over a measured distance, mos ...
-style game set in
Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...
, and ''Forza Customs'' (2023), a tile-matching video game based on car customization. Both spin-offs were initially released as independent games before being rebranded as ''Forza'' titles.


History

Turn 10 Studios was established in 2001 by
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
, under its Microsoft Game Studios division, to develop a series of
racing game Racing games are a video game genre in which the player participates in a motor racing, racing competition. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to fantastical settings. They are distributed along a spectrum between more re ...
s, which later became known as ''Forza'', as the Xbox rival to '' Gran Turismo'' for
PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...
. At the time of the studio's establishment, most staff had experience in publishing games, such as '' Project Gotham Racing'' 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, including its
Xbox Live The Xbox network, formerly known and commonly referred to as Xbox Live, is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft Gaming for the Xbox brand. It was first made available to the origina ...
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 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 (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...
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. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...
. Every ''Forza'' title includes an
artificial neural network In machine learning, a neural network (also artificial neural network or neural net, abbreviated ANN or NN) is a computational model inspired by the structure and functions of biological neural networks. A neural network consists of connected ...
used by its AI racers, called Drivatars, a
portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.
of ''driver'' and ''avatar''. Drivatars were developed and designed by Microsoft Research Cambridge to learn and adapt to the player's driving. In early ''Forza'' titles, the Drivatars ran on a Bayesian neural network, 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 interdisciplinary area of machine learning and optimal control concerned with how an intelligent agent should take actions in a dynamic environment in order to maximize a reward signal. Reinforcement learnin ...
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 capab ...
. Today, it develops and uses a proprietary 3D modelling 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 console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...
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 LeamingtonEven more colloquially, also referred to as Lem or Leam (). (), is a spa town and civil parish in Warwickshire, England. Originally a small village called Leamington Pri ...
, England, by Gavin Raeburn, Trevor Williams, and Ralph Fulton, all former employees of Codemasters. Raeburn was known for his role in developing critical hits such as the ''
Dirt Dirt is any matter considered unclean, 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 * Du ...
'' and ''TOCA'' series, but he became inspired by the open world environment of '' Test Drive Unlimited'', 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 video game, racing titles ''Metropolis Street Racer'' (Dreamcast) and the follow-up Project Gotham Racing, ''Project Gotham Rac ...
,
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 Studios, Cl ...
, 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, 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 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. In 2025, ''Forza Horizon 5'' was announced and slated for release on
Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...
's
PlayStation 5 The PlayStation 5 (PS5) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was announced as the successor to the PlayStation 4 in April 2019, was launched on November 12, 2020, in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North ...
console in Q1/Q2 2025 as part of
Microsoft Gaming Microsoft Gaming is an American multinational video game and digital entertainment division of Microsoft based in Redmond, Washington, established in 2022. Its five development and publishing labels consist of: Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda Soft ...
's ongoing plans to distribute their first-party library on multiple platforms, marking the first time the franchise has shipped on a non-Xbox console.


ForzaTech

ForzaTech is the proprietary video game engine created by Turn 10 Studios. 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, as well as the upcoming ''
Fable Fable is a literary genre defined as a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a parti ...
'' reboot.


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 and a tuned Nissan 350Z are the cover vehicles. It is playable on the Xbox 360 via
backwards compatibility In telecommunications and computing, backward compatibility (or backwards compatibility) is a property of an operating system, software, real-world product, or technology that allows for interoperability with an older legacy system, or with Input ...
.


''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 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 non-negative scalar quantity. Intro ...
. The show was produced by Bud Brutsman and hosted by Lee Reherman. A tuned Nissan 350z 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 vehicles and
stock car Stock car racing is a form of automobile racing run on oval tracks and road courses. It originally used production-model cars, hence the name "stock car", but is now run using cars specifically built for racing. It originated in the southe ...
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 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 television presenter, journalist, farmer, and author who specialises in Driving, motoring. He is best known for hosting the television programmes ''Top Gear (2002 TV series), T ...
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 discontinued line of motion sensing input devices produced by Microsoft and first released in 2010. The devices generally contain RGB color model, RGB cameras, and Thermographic camera, infrared projectors and detectors that map dep ...
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 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
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 console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...
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, and author. He co-hosted the BBC Two motoring programme ''Top Gear (2002 TV series), Top Gear'' from 2002 until 2015 with Jeremy Clarkson and James Ma ...
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, alongside Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond, of the motoring programme ''Top Gear (2002 TV series), Top Gear'' fr ...
provide commentary alongside Clarkson. The Autovista mode was renamed Forzavista, and new to the series are
open-wheel car An open-wheel 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 car racing, sports cars, Stock car racing, stock cars, and Touring car racing, touring car ...
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. The 2013
McLaren P1 The McLaren P1 (codenamed P12) is a flagship sports car produced by British marque McLaren Automotive. Styled by American car designer Frank Stephenson, it is the second installment in McLaren's Ultimate Series after the McLaren F1. Considered ...
was 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. The successor to Windows 8.1, it was Software release cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on July 2 ...
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 design, mid-engine two-seater sports car manufactured and marketed by American automobile manufacturer Ford Motor Company, Ford for the 2005 model year in conjunction with the company's 2003 centenary. The second gene ...
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. The 2017 Ford GT is the cover vehicle.


''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 content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can be added for no extra cost or as a form of video game monetization, enabling the publisher to gain ad ...
. The 2018 Porsche 911 GT2 RS is the cover vehicle.


''Forza Motorsport'' (2023)

The eighth ''Forza Motorsport'' game serves as a
reboot In computing, rebooting is the process by which a running computer system is restarted, either intentionally or unintentionally. Reboots can be either a cold reboot (alternatively known as a hard reboot) in which the power to the system is physi ...
of the ''Motorsport'' sub-series. It was first announced during Microsoft's Xbox Games Showcase on July 23, 2020, and was eventually released on October 10, 2023. The 2023 Cadillac V-Series.R and the 2024 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray are the cover vehicles.


''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 is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
. 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 optimized 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 backward-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 geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the Atlantic Ocean south of the Marais Poitevin,Louis Papy, ''Le midi atlantique'', Atlas e ...
and
Northern Italy Northern Italy (, , ) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. The Italian National Institute of Statistics defines the region as encompassing the four Northwest Italy, northwestern Regions of Italy, regions of Piedmo ...
, and the playing field is three times the map of its predecessor. The Xbox 360 version was developed by
Sumo Digital Sumo Digital Ltd. is a British video game developer based in Sheffield and the principal subsidiary of Sumo Group since 2017. The company was founded in 2003 by four former members of the management team of Infogrames Studios. History Sumo D ...
, and is the final ''Forza'' game for Xbox 360. The Xbox One version introduced dynamic weather and lighting systems to the series. Tuning also made a return in the Xbox One version of the game, after being absent from the previous Horizon title. 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 makes it the first ''Forza'' title to allow cross-play on the two Microsoft platforms. The game is set in
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
, 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, 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 RSRX 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 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
Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...
, 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, Scotland. It stands on Castle Rock (Edinburgh), Castle Rock, which has been occupied by humans since at least the Iron Age. There has been a royal castle on the rock since the reign of Malcol ...
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 or on a 72-player server. The 2018 McLaren Senna and 1997 Land Rover Defender 90 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 and Xbox Series S are the fourth generation of consoles in the Xbox series, succeeding the previous generation's Xbox One. Released on November 10, 2020, the higher-end Xbox Series X and lower-end Xbox Series S are part o ...
, and Windows 10 on November 9, 2021, and is set in
Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
. 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 EventLab 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 SUV, SUVs manufactured and marketed by Ford Motor Company, 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 ...
Badlands are the cover cars. In 2025, ''Forza Horizon 5'' was announced and slated for release on
Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...
's
PlayStation 5 The PlayStation 5 (PS5) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was announced as the successor to the PlayStation 4 in April 2019, was launched on November 12, 2020, in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North ...
console on April 29, 2025 as part of
Microsoft Gaming Microsoft Gaming is an American multinational video game and digital entertainment division of Microsoft based in Redmond, Washington, established in 2022. Its five development and publishing labels consist of: Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda Soft ...
's ongoing plans to distribute their first-party library on multiple platforms, marking the first time the franchise has shipped on a non-Xbox console.


Spin-offs


''Forza Street'' (2019–2022)

''Forza Street'' was a free-to-play 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
iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...
and Android on May 5, 2020. ''Forza Street'' used
Unreal Engine 4 Unreal Engine 4 (UE4) is the fourth version of Unreal Engine developed by Epic Games. UE4 began development in 2003 and was released in March 2014, with the first game using UE4 being released in April 2014. UE4 introduced support for Physically ...
instead of ForzaTech. Unlike the main ''Motorsport'' and ''Horizon'' titles, ''Street'' featured short, quick street races, and was meant to be played on low-end devices. Gameplay involved players controlling only the acceleration and braking by pressing and releasing a button or a touch screen; steering was handled automatically. Players could also use nitrous to give their cars a speed boost. There was 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.


''Forza Customs'' (2023)

''Forza Customs'' is a free-to-play tile-matching video game developed by British developer Hutch Games, the second mobile spin-off in the ''Forza'' franchise, and the franchise's first non-racing game title, using the Unity engine instead of ForzaTech. Similar to ''Forza Street'', it is a rebrand of a previously released game titled ''Custom Car Works'', and is themed after car modification and customization. The game was closed and removed from app stores on March 10, 2025.


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
US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...
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 alongside parent company Gamer Network. In 2008, it started in the formerly eponymous trade fair EGX (Eurogamer Expo until 2013) organised by its parent company. Fr ...
'' 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 an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
; 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.


References


External links

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