Xbox slows down development of next Forza Motorsport, prioritizes other titles
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Key points
- Forza Motorsport title wasn’t totally abandoned by Xbox and was just slowed down or postponed in line with priorities.
- The Forza Motorsport sub-series includes eight titles, with the last one, titled simply Forza Motorsport, launched as a reboot in 2023.
- In total, the Forza franchise includes 14 games, as besides Motorsport, it also includes six titles of the Forza Horizon sub-series.
It seems that development of the new Forza Motorsport title wasn’t totally abandoned by Xbox and was just slowed down or postponed in line with priorities, according to a clarification from Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer, which appeared in his recent interview with Famitsy dated Oct. 24, 2025.
Concerns about the future of the franchise rose in July 2025, when Turn 10 Studios, the company established in 2001 under Xbox Game Studios to develop the Forza Motorsport series for Xbox platforms, suffered layoffs that affected over 70 members of its development team, along with claims that the studio had been turned into a Forza Horizon support studio.
“Regarding Forza Motorsport, we sometimes need to shift our focus to games that are released sooner. We understand the reaction many people had when we scaled back Turn 10 Studios. We have a large number of games we want to support carefully, and sometimes we give development teams a little more time to avoid putting them under strain. Our current structure allows us this flexibility,” explained Spencer, answering the question about the future of the Forza Motorsport IP.
The original Forza Motorsport series focuses primarily on 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 Motorsport sub-series includes eight titles, with the last one, titled simply Forza Motorsport, launched as a reboot in 2023, dropping the sequential numbering from past entries’ titles.
In total, the Forza franchise includes 14 games, as besides Motorsport, it also includes six titles of the Forza Horizon sub-series, featuring more arcade-style racing while maintaining a toned down version of Motorsport’s simulation physics, with the sixth installment coming in 2026.
