Forza is Now a Billion-Dollar Franchise

[GTPNewsWire]

This is the discussion thread for a recent post on GTPlanet:

Forza is Now a Billion-Dollar Franchise
Microsoft reveals retail sales of all Forza games have reached a significant milestone.

This article was published by Ali Samy (@sems4arsenal) on February 14th, 2017 in the Forza category.

 

[PletdeKoe]

Nice! So does that mean they now have enough money to make a good game?

 

[Fredzy]

The Forza franchise’s next entry is the rumored Forza Motorsport 7 which should release sometime this year and it will be fascinating to see how well it does since it will get released alongside Project CARS 2 and Gran Turismo Sport.

Oh? Pretty optimistic.

 

[sems4arsenal]

Oh? Pretty optimistic.

Don't stop believing

 

[RaceFuchs]

Good to hear. Just proofs that racing games still have a mainstream audience. For those looking for a more casual approach, FH3 is the perfect game. I just hope Forza 7 will be aimed at the sim-audience. It would be kinda sad if they would always follow the simcade pattern, claiming it's the most realistic sim or something like that.

Today we have the biggest sim-audience ever and good competition, would be great seeing Forza becoming part of that. If Forza 7 is just more of the same (forza 6), i would propably stick with pCars2.

 

[Fat Tyre]

Congrats Turn 10!

 

[TheAdmiester]

Fully deserved. FH3 is the game of the generation so far and Forza in general has that perfect balance of quality and quantity.

 

[cutmeamango]

That confirms FH3 is selling in line with FH2.
And that possibly F5+F6+H2+H3 sold less than 3.5-3.8mi in Europe.

111mi revenue on average is great considering it's just retail sales.
To put in perspective, Gears of War series reached 1bi gross revenue between 4 games (before GoW4), at 27mi copies total.

By the way, where does it say that the 2.5mi for FH3 is without digital sales? Their statement doesn't indicate that.

 

[PzR Slim]

Nice! So does that mean they now have enough money to make a good game?

What do you mean?

 

[Nattefrost]

"Since the beginning, Forza has combined stunning graphics, racing’s leading simulation engine, and an emphasis on fun and accessibility."

I fully understand companies exaggerating their own products, but this a bit ridiculous. We all know this is a blatant lie and he knows we all know it. I loathe marketing talk. The Forza franchise is generally light on simulation and it's very comfortable with it, as evidenced by the Forza Horizon games.

 

[sems4arsenal]

That confirms FH3 is selling in line with FH2.
And that possibly F5+F6+H2+H3 sold less than 3.5-3.8mi in Europe.

111mi revenue on average is great considering it's just retail sales.
To put in perspective, Gears of War series reached 1bi gross revenue between 4 games (before GoW4), at 27mi copies total.

By the way, where does it say that the 2.5mi for FH3 is without digital sales? Their statement doesn't indicate that.

NPD doesn't track digital sales.

It is actually more than likely that the 2.5 figure is only from the NPD tracker, which means that the game has sold significantly more than 2.5 million since it's been in the Top 10 UK charts for months now.

 

[prousonhairy]

What do you mean?

I think he was was being facetious, or trying to be.

 

[cutmeamango]

NPD doesn't track digital sales.

It is actually more than likely that the 2.5 figure is only from the NPD tracker, which means that the game has sold significantly more than 2.5 million since it's been in the Top 10 UK charts for months now.

That's the thing with PR texts.

"As of December, more than 14 million unique players were involved in the Forza community on Xbox One and Windows 10, the award-winning Forza Horizon 3 sold through 2.5 million units, and Forza continued its run as the best-selling racing franchise of this console generation.*"

It's not 14mi unique players just in NA/Oceania.
And it's not 2.5mi just in NPD tracked sales.
Forza is the best selling racing franchise in the territories tracked by the NPD Group between November 2012-January 2017.

These are three separate statements in one sentence.

 

[Spagetti69]

Well done fully deserved.

 

[-Fred-]

The Forza franchise is generally light on simulation and it's very comfortable with it, as evidenced by the Forza Horizon games.

Forza Motorsport ≠ Forza Horizon. It's two completely different teams with two different studios working on two different games that only share modeling assets and a part of the name. Also, keep in mind we're on a forum that mainly discusses a simcade (or full-on arcade game if we're going by today's physics engines) that used "The real driving simulator" as a tagline. There's not a full-on sim out there anyway, aside from strapping yourself in an actual car.

But I disagree they should move into the pure simulator market, I feel like games should stay true to their origins in some way. There's already a bunch of full on hardcore sims out there, no need to saturate it with another failed attempt at being the most hardcore game out there. T10 has made the series a household name with what it is, they should just keep on polishing it and make it better, but shouldn't change the general formula.

 

[SAFFY]

I'm sure this will only motivate T10 to deliver an even better product than what they've already achieved. Dare I say it, but I'm sure there's a lesson here for someone. No? Ok.

 

[sems4arsenal]

That's the thing with PR texts.

"As of December, more than 14 million unique players were involved in the Forza community on Xbox One and Windows 10, the award-winning Forza Horizon 3 sold through 2.5 million units, and Forza continued its run as the best-selling racing franchise of this console generation.*"

It's not 14mi unique players just in NA/Oceania.
And it's not 2.5mi just in NPD tracked sales.
Forza is the best selling racing franchise in the territories tracked by the NPD Group between November 2012-January 2017.

These are three separate statements in one sentence.

Microsoft's PR department putting in work but again can't be 100% sure, good catch though.

 

[ImaRobot]

I fully understand companies exaggerating their own products, but this a bit ridiculous. We all know this is a blatant lie and he knows we all know it. I loathe marketing talk. The Forza franchise is generally light on simulation and it's very comfortable with it, as evidenced by the Forza Horizon games.

Eh, less of a lie and probably just a play on words. It probably is the leading Simulation style game in the genre this generation, in terms of popularity and sales.

 

[Antonio_1989]

That means Forza Horizon 4 confirmed .

 

[The Chosen One]

Nice! So does that mean they now have enough money to make a good game?

I understand where you may be coming from, as another user who's frustrated by endless DLC.

But, that's not to discredit the huge amount of content in the base game already.

 

[deththrasher]

Nice! So does that mean they now have enough money to make a good game?

I don't think they've ever made a bad one quite honestly, 5 came the closest.

I do wish they'd focus more on the motorsport side of things in the "Motorsport" games though.

 

[C_Raccoon23]

Nice! So does that mean they now have enough money to make a good game?

It must sure bug you to see Forza being successful.

 

[GroupB]

It may be tough for some to accept, but at this stage to be successful against the GT franchise all you have to do is actually bring a game to market.

 

[SPhilli911]

Having bought every single Forza game and all the DLC with them, I think I've spent more money on this franchise than any other. Not all that surprised they hit the billion dollar mark, but it's an impressive accomplishment, still.

 

[breyzipp]

Forza now becomes the third Microsoft owned IP to become a “billion dollar franchise”, following Gears of War and Halo. Phil Spencer (head of the Xbox division) had this to say:

“Since the beginning, Forza has combined stunning graphics, racing’s leading simulation engine, and an emphasis on fun and accessibility. With the Forza series, Turn 10 Studios has built the world’s largest racing community. We couldn’t be more proud of their success.”

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.



Sorry.



Still LMAO though.

 

[TS050]

Nice! So does that mean they now have enough money to make a good game?

L

 

[ImaRobot]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.



Sorry.



Still LMAO though.

Eh, less of a lie and probably just a play on words. It probably is the leading Simulation style game in the genre this generation, in terms of popularity and sales.

Technically, it's not lying. Leading =/= the most accurate in this case.

 

[Milouse]

It is actually more than likely that the 2.5 figure is only from the NPD tracker, which means that the game has sold significantly more than 2.5 million since it's been in the Top 10 UK charts for months now.

Here's a graphic history of players in Horizon 3 (compared with Forza 6) since release (based on first, mandatory ranked event). I don't think multi-account-per-game on this type of game is very high, nor play with no internet connection.
Forza 3 Vs Forza 6 Players Historic
We're roughly on par with what Microsoft is saying.
There's no reason for MS PR to omit Digital sales.

One question though about the billion $ is how do they count games bundled with consoles.

 

[The_Paladin]

Im really happy with this news!

 

[Northstar]

Considering how many franchises crash and burn it's saying quite a lot to be as successful as Forza has. Really the only other racing games I can see being in the "Billion dollar club" are GT, Need for Speed and possibly Mario Kart.

Hopefully FM7 keeps up the good streak T10/PG have been on.