Forza Motorsport Series Appears to Be Finished Following Microsoft Layoffs, While Horizon Continues to Thrive.

      Xbox Game Studios

      

      Get The Drive’s daily newsletter

      

      The latest car news, reviews, and features.

      

      Last week, we learned about significant job cuts across Microsoft's different divisions responsible for Xbox games. Among the most affected was Forza Motorsport developer Turn 10 Studios, with reports from The Verge indicating that the team based in Redmond, Washington, saw over 70 employees laid off. The layoffs impacted important personnel throughout the company, including leads in physics and audio, as well as artists, engineers, and community support staff. This situation has cast uncertainty over the future of the Motorsport aspect of the brand, especially after a major live service reboot with the latest game launched in 2023.

      Towards the end of last week, Fred Russell, an employee who last worked at Turn 10 in 2016, posted on Facebook indicating that Forza Motorsport had been "shuttered," while noting that the Forza Horizon franchise would "continue." The linked report from The Verge notes that there are “enough people left to keep Forza Motorsport operational,” although this does not guarantee new content moving forward—simply that the game will remain online. Motorsport received a significant update in May to celebrate the franchise’s 20th anniversary, introducing a plethora of new single-player events, retrospective races, and notably, the return of the beloved Fujimi Kaido track to the series.

      Last month, prior to the job cuts, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer talked about the arrival of "the next Forza" in 2026, which would align with the 25th anniversary of the original Xbox. It was already expected that this upcoming title would be a new entry in the open-world, arcade Forza Horizon series, rather than another Motorsport simulator, and the layoffs at Turn 10 seem to support that expectation. The last game in the Horizon series was released in 2021 and is managed by Playground Games based in the U.K., unlike Motorsport, which has consistently been overseen by Turn 10. What remains of Turn 10 will likely assist Playground in the development of Forza Horizon 6. The Drive has contacted Microsoft regarding the future of the Forza Motorsport franchise and will update this story as more information becomes available.

      The Nürburgring Nordschleife was excluded from Forza Motorsport’s initial launch and was incorporated into the game months later. Xbox Game Studios

      The latest installment of Forza Motorsport launched to mixed reviews in October 2023, with many reviewers and players praising its handling and revamped circuits but criticizing its experimental single-player campaign, performance issues on Xbox consoles and particularly on PC, as well as day-one bugs. In early 2024, a contractor who worked on the game shared insights into the challenging development environment.

      Forza Motorsport quickly established itself as one of Microsoft’s flagship gaming franchises alongside Halo and Project Gotham Racing towards the end of the original Xbox's lifecycle. The inaugural game was released in May 2005, just three months after the launch of Gran Turismo 4 on PlayStation 2. While it was evident that Microsoft intended to compete with Sony’s racing simulator, Forza cultivated a distinct identity based on allowing players to do things Gran Turismo did not permit, such as damaging cars, modifying them cosmetically, changing powertrains, and designing liveries.

      Forza Motorsport emerged as the grassroots competitor to the more polished and avant-garde Gran Turismo, embracing automotive subcultures from the 2000s tuner boom to classic American muscle and modern motorsports. Its soundtrack, mostly featuring Junkie XL's arrangements of classic rock songs, stood in stark contrast to GT’s upbeat jazz. The series arguably peaked during the Xbox 360 era, with FM3 elevating Xbox’s racing simulation to new levels, and FM4 refining the formula. However, since the release of Playground Games' first open-world Forza Horizon title in 2010, the more casual spinoff has surpassed Motorsport in terms of overall popularity.

      Forza Motorsport has struggled to regain its former charm from 15 years ago—and frankly, so has Xbox—but there has always been hope that the series would rebound and reclaim its status as a leader in the genre rather than a follower. Sadly, that prospect appears bleaker than ever, 20 years and two months since its inception.

      Have a tip? Reach the author at [email protected]