Between 2011 and 2018, theForzaseries of racing games had a golden age. A new game was released every year, alternating betweenForza MotorsportandForza Horizon. That ended in 2019 when the spin-offForza Streetwas released, and in 2020 there was noForzarelease. TheForzadrought may be coming to an end soon, however, but possibly not with theForzagame that has already been announced. It may beForza Horizon 5that launches next.
Venture Beat’s Jeff Grubb recently talked about what’s next for theForzafranchise, where he dropped some news that came as a surprise. According to Grubb, it won’t beForza Motorsportthat’s released next, it will instead beForza Horizon 5. Further,Forza Horizon 5may be further along in development than expected, as Grubb speculates thatForza Motorsport 5will be released in 2021. That means it will have been three years since the release ofForza Horizon 4in 2018, the longest dev time since the original game.
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Grubb said he has more information about the nextForza Horizongame, which is developed byPlayground Games. However, he decided not to share those details, seeing as the game hasn’t been officially announced. He does nod toward the game’s setting, which may be something unique, but doesn’t reveal it. Fans will just have to wait for Xbox and Playground to decide it’s time to make an official confirmation.
Grubb isn’t saying anything about thein-developmentForza Motorsportgame. That game may be near the end of its development too, but as of now it isn’t clear what the game’s status is. Grubb is only discussing the possibility of the nextForza Horizonreleasing in 2021, which he says Playground has suggested it should be ready for.
There’s a lot to this conversation that isn’t being said.Forza MotorsportandForza Horizoniterations have been on two-year development schedules for almost 10 years. That they both fell off that schedule and missed theXbox Series X launchseems like a major misstep.
That being said, any delays are understandable. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the development of a ton of games, especially atMicrosoft’s Xbox Game Studios. It just happens to creates a curious situation where Playground may be finishing its work, despite a newForza Motorsportalready being announced. Xbox may make up for the lack ofForzain 2020 with a lot of presence for the series in the relatively near future.
