Following significant job losses across Xbox Games Studios, including what is believed to be noticeable cuts at Forza Motorsport creators Turn 10 Studios, Microsoft is still burying its head in the sand and refusing to clarify the situation.
Despite repeated requests for comment, none is forthcoming – although several now-former employees’ LinkedIn posts paint a bleak picture.
Today, 7th August, the following social media post was shared on the Forza Motorsport feeds.
“Dear Forza Community, we know many of you have questions about what’s next for the Forza franchise, and we appreciate the support of our incredible community. We wanted to assure players that Turn 10 and Playground Games will continue to support Forza Motorsport and Forza Horizon 5. To start, here’s more info about what’s coming next to Forza Motorsport.”
It then links to a rather meandering blog post about Motorsport’s latest update, which lacks any new content.
“Continue to support” could mean new content and features, it could also only mean creating new challenges, recycling old content and the odd bug fix – it remains clear as mud, and no spokesperson is forthcoming.
The notion of Forza Horizon 5 being added to the conversation doesn’t help, as it’s unlikely to receive significant updates anymore anyway, what with Horizon 6 believed to be launching next year.
Despite Horizon being led by Playground Games, each instalment in the open-world Forzas, Turn 10 is believed to have the ultimate sign-off, despite not being the lead developers. This is by dint of it creating the original Forza titles.
Forza Motorsport Update 21 recycles content
There is no new car or track content for Forza Motorsport’s Update 21.
Instead, the limited-time Track Toys Tour from May 2024 has been reinstated as a permanent addition. Once again, the same prize car for completing it will be the 2019 Porsche #70 Porsche Motorsport 935.
Henceforth, each month, another returning, previously FOMO, tour (series of single-player events) will be revived. So, for August, it’s Track Tours and on 4th September, it will be the Ringer Tour.
Somewhat ominously, the Forza website states: “This cadence will continue until all of the Tours have returned.”
But what happens after that? To reinstate prior content does require team members, but not as many as all-new content…
At the same time, on the same cadence, previous Open Class Tour reward cars can be picked up by completing tasks within the Challenge Hub. Speaking of which, that will feature a revised roster to complete, and as ever, there will be four new Featured Rivals events this month.
But that’s it – there isn’t even any fresh Feature Multiplayer structures mentioned, and this update covers both August and September.
We’ll be surprised if something significant happens in October, but pleasantly surprised if so. It certainly feels like a game, and potentially a series, on life support.
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