Turn 10 Is Not Making Forza Motorsport 8 (Yet)

[GTPNewsWire]

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

Turn 10 Is Not Making Forza Motorsport 8 (Yet)

This article was published by Joe Donaldson (@Joey D) on July 15th, 2018 in the Forza Motorsport 7 category.

 

[UKMikey]

While I don't wish to see Turn 10 adopt a Polyphony Digital-like five year release schedule, it'd be nice if the development team were to perhaps sit down and work a little harder on bringing new and innovative features to their oldest franchise and made it a little more about the motorsport experience. They should look back to well received releases like FM4 and try and work out what makes a great racing game.

Or put Ralph Fulton in charge, I don't care.

What I'm worried about is whether they're under orders from Microsoft to attempt to further recoup its investment in FM7 by attempting to "fix it in the mix" and patch and repatch it into a more financially successful release.

 

[MrCrynox]

Or they may just be stalling F8 for release on the next Xbox..they have pretty much hit/gone beyond what the current hardware is capable of unless they alienate and fracture the user base by making F8 an XB1X exclusive, which will probably never happen..

 

[RandomCarGuy17]

I honestly don't care if they don't add an expansion pack if they continue to add new content and features. Maybe they'll just implement track dlc on their own this time. However, I'll have to wait and see what happens.

 

[austindeckerGT5]

Oh Well. Horizon 4 is coming out so RIP FM7 anyway lol

 

[HuskyGT]

It would be interesting to see what a long-term development Forza would look like. I love Forza, but in the past three titles, you can feel it's a bit uninspired. It all reached its peak with FM3 and FM4, and then it just went downhill.

I'll keep an eye out and see if they are really listening to their fans.

Oh Well. Horizon 4 is coming out so RIP FM7 anyway lol

Yeah this pretty much They would have to make a huge game-changing improvement to FM7 to make me reinstall the game.

 

[Nielsen]

And they shouldn't. The franchise needs a new console generation to move forward, but even then it wouldn't hurt to rethink the concept a little. Collecting cars and driving race tracks is fine and timeless, but I think it's time to dig deeper in order to preserve the mass appeal to an extent that really counts.

 

[Northstar]

I'll keep an eye out and see if they are really listening to their fans.

I honestly think they try to, but the ones writing the checks don't always have the fans best interest in mind. Hopefully with MS going on a developer shopping spree the weight on T10 to be the flagship brand will lighten a little and they can get back to what made the 360 games so great.

 

[PzR Slim]

I think with the success of Horizon they now have more time to develop there games and don't to worry about the 2 year release schedule.

 

[breyzipp]

They said "100% of the team is working on FM7". That doesn't necessarily mean that they are not working on FM8. I think they are just working on features with FM8 in mind, but they implement them in FM7 first. So yeah, you can sell that as if the entire team is working on FM7.

They kinda did the same with Forza RC, they were developing it with FM7 in mind but they first implemented it live in FM6 to get the RC ball rolling and at the same time they had a nifty live testing environment.

 

[RaceFuchs]

The entire team working on FM7... but not even an expansion? Come on, Turn 10. Its really hard for me to believe that. Yeah, the latest updates were cool, but its been 9 months since release and we havent even got a single new track. There are so many possibilities with this game, like a rally / rally cross / offroad type of expansion... i'm just wondering... where is it? What is this whole team doing day in, day out? Just fixing some bugs, tweaking gameplay details? No way.

 

[Imari]

Or they may just be stalling F8 for release on the next Xbox..they have pretty much hit/gone beyond what the current hardware is capable of unless they alienate and fracture the user base by making F8 an XB1X exclusive, which will probably never happen..

This wouldn't surprise me. There was a pretty big backlash to FM5 at launch, despite it being pretty much exactly what would be expected of a launch racing game. I think if they keep collecting content and systems to have a really big upgrade at the launch of the next Xbox it'll probably be better for them than any incremental improvement of FM7 could be.

The entire team working on FM7... but not even an expansion? Come on, Turn 10. Its really hard for me to believe that.

Remember that their "whole team" is less than a hundred people. The actual FM team is relatively small, and they simply get contractors for a lot of the grunt work. I can't imagine that they're hiring contractors for the upkeep of FM7, so it seems quite plausible that their entire smallish team is tinkering with FM7.

That said, I'm sure there's a bit of exaggeration in that statement as there's likely to be at least a handful of people working on future design stuff, but I don't doubt that the general gist of the comment is accurate.

 

[RaceFuchs]

Its actually very good news they want to improve FM7 and support the game for a long time... even after FH4 has been released. IF they do this and add some meaty new content (tracks, modes, new ways to play the game, more motorsport features, even more car packs)
But is this really going to happen? So far, Microsoft pretty much ignored the “old“ Forza game as soon as the new one hit shelfs... although, i think this has improved with FH3 at least to some degree...

 

[McZachenF1138]

Neat, still waiting on that Test Track open space and a place to use all the off road vehicles.

 

[TonyJZX]

This is the only sensible statement possible. One thing you will note is how these games tend to fall by the wayside once their shelf life has ended.

I feel it now even with Horizon 3... Forza 6 fell off the planet pretty quickly and with viable news on whether Forza 8 will come on Xbox One of the next big thing then they need to keep the hype on Forza 7.

So where's the big Nascar Indycar whatever DLC?

 

[serlemke]

It would be interesting to see what a long-term development Forza would look like. I love Forza, but in the past three titles, you can feel it's a bit uninspired. It all reached its peak with FM3 and FM4, and then it just went downhill.

I agree! That forza made me buy the xbox360 back in time when I was deciding between xbox and ps3. And it was a good move, I made like that 1000points on the forza 3 and a lot of points on forza 4, but now seeing that forza 7 on youtube it seems they moved some steps towards arcade? Anyway, I found that gran turismo sports brings back that feeling I had on the xbox 360 playing forza3 in the cockpit mode, which I really enjoyed and can now enjoy again. Lets hope they do analyze forza 3 and 4 for the future and go again to that direction.

 

[th3o]

I actually think that they squeezed that hardware with FM7 as well as they could. They already had to cut into some visual fidelity to make dynamic weather and native 4k (on the X) happen when you compare FM7 to FM6 and FM5. The iterations 5 and 6 had baked in lighting and no dynamic weather but the night racing looked better, the cars had better reflections, the shadows were more distinct in general, they had to me better shaders in place and ambient occlusion, even trees and gras looked better. All these areas got cut down to some degree in FM7 to make place for that Horizon 3 style of sky and the dynamic weather. The game also looks often not bright enough (because they can't have strong shadows) and because of the low ambient occlusion it can look 'flat' too.

So what i'm trying to say is: They need new hardware, there is nothing they can bring to the table graphically to justify a new game. And as for implementing new features, they can do that in FM7 too, new modes etc.

So better make a kickass FM8 for the new console generation in 2020 and concentrate for now on supporting FM7.

 

[Robin]

Forza Horizon has pretty much cannibalised it's own Forza Motorsport fan base, so much hype for new Horizon games and FM has kind of taken a back seat. I could see it being some time before 8 comes along. I realise one is arcade and one is more of a sim but broadly speaking Horizon is more accessible and fun to the average gamer and thats probably why it has become more popular.

 

[th3o]

I think FM series needs to stop trying to appeal to the fun racers out there completely. They should really embrace the simulation aspect more, make race weekends possible with practice, qualifying, proper pit stops (animations too), develop a more complex physics engine, in short: make the game a bit harder, like Assetto Corsa or PCars 2. Does not need to be iRacing or rFactor2, but just move a bit away from that mass market 'simcade' approach. Just let the Horizon series do the full arcade experience while Motorsport becomes a real sim. Also i hope that they go back to the more classy approach in terms of presentation (like 4,5,6) instead of this punkrock stuttery 3D models on stage kinds of bs.

 

[VXR]

It would be nice for proper, 20 race championships based around car classes with cutscenes and a true sense of progression.

 

[Northstar]

I’m fine with the physics balance they have currently (there is room for improvement though). But it would be nice to have more proper racing elements in the game. Sort of like a sandbox version of Grid Autosport. Things like proper race weekends, custom championships (with custom grids) as well as things like actual pit stops and driver swaps would go a long way in the immersion department.

 

[d0x360]

T10 doesn't really need to release every other year at this point. They should turn FM into a platform that gets content updates all year and then maybe a large expansion. Sell the game for $60, $10 for all dlc cars through the year and $20 for a large expansion.

Keep horizon as a biannual release because they can keep changing the countries and adding stuff but main series should definitely become a platform and obviously one that isn't insanely priced.

They should also make FM more sim like with qualifying laps, flag system, proper pits etc while keeping it accessible to everyone meaning either tutorials or well designed easy to use menus while racing for car adjustments in the pits.

Then you just let FH be the place where people can run wild (as they do) and hopefully that would increase the quality of racing in FM. Some of the systems from FH4 and other games that help deal with griefing would help..like maybe ghosting everyone on the 1st friggen corner who crashes in more races than not. I understand why it happens but you shouldn't be able to ruin a 30 min race in the 1st 5 seconds

 

[Joey D]

T10 doesn't really need to release every other year at this point. They should turn FM into a platform that gets content updates all year and then maybe a large expansion. Sell the game for $60, $10 for all dlc cars through the year and $20 for a large expansion.

Keep horizon as a biannual release because they can keep changing the countries and adding stuff but main series should definitely become a platform and obviously one that isn't insanely priced.

They should also make FM more sim like with qualifying laps, flag system, proper pits etc while keeping it accessible to everyone meaning either tutorials or well designed easy to use menus while racing for car adjustments in the pits.

Then you just let FH be the place where people can run wild (as they do) and hopefully that would increase the quality of racing in FM. Some of the systems from FH4 and other games that help deal with griefing would help..like maybe ghosting everyone on the 1st friggen corner who crashes in more races than not. I understand why it happens but you shouldn't be able to ruin a 30 min race in the 1st 5 seconds

Now that MS has acquired Playground Games, I wonder if this is its plan.

Sim racing as a service, as opposed to a bi-annual release, does make a ton of sense too. So far it's working for Gran Turismo Sport to a degree.

 

[TheOE]

I think FM series needs to stop trying to appeal to the fun racers out there completely. They should really embrace the simulation aspect more, make race weekends possible with practice, qualifying, proper pit stops (animations too), develop a more complex physics engine, in short: make the game a bit harder, like Assetto Corsa or PCars 2. Does not need to be iRacing or rFactor2, but just move a bit away from that mass market 'simcade' approach. Just let the Horizon series do the full arcade experience while Motorsport becomes a real sim. Also i hope that they go back to the more classy approach in terms of presentation (like 4,5,6) instead of this punkrock stuttery 3D models on stage kinds of bs.

I don´t think this is the right way. They will have to face other games as AC or PC2 even more, which both have a smaller playerbase as FM Titles. They have always been a Sandbox Car Game, where you dont need to have a wheel setup. Also you can just jump into it, play for 10 Minutes and close it. You are not able to do this in any other game.

 

[th3o]

I don´t think this is the right way. They will have to face other games as AC or PC2 even more, which both have a smaller playerbase as FM Titles. They have always been a Sandbox Car Game, where you dont need to have a wheel setup. Also you can just jump into it, play for 10 Minutes and close it. You are not able to do this in any other game.

That is actually literally how i play Assetto Corsa at the moment. I hop in, customize myself a "Quick Race", have a blast for 10 laps and can close it again. Also very very well playable with a controller if you know how to tweak it and still get how got the physics are. Going then back to FM7 the game feels numb and unresponsive in comparison. And the tracks seem to have almost no bumps whatsoever, everything is so flat.

 

[Silver Arrows]

I think FM series needs to stop trying to appeal to the fun racers out there completely. They should really embrace the simulation aspect more, make race weekends possible with practice, qualifying, proper pit stops (animations too), develop a more complex physics engine, in short: make the game a bit harder, like Assetto Corsa or PCars 2. Does not need to be iRacing or rFactor2, but just move a bit away from that mass market 'simcade' approach. Just let the Horizon series do the full arcade experience while Motorsport becomes a real sim. Also i hope that they go back to the more classy approach in terms of presentation (like 4,5,6) instead of this punkrock stuttery 3D models on stage kinds of bs.

To the people that are liking this, and you in particular: you do realize why Forza exists right? It doesn't need to be a super serious, down to brass tacks racing sim. It never was, and it never will be. Contrary to what you might think of this idea, the entire reason why Forza is still doing well, even with the move to PC and ultimately a larger, more advanced market then on consoles, is because of that simcade approach. The fact that I can take a relatively pedestrian vehicle, or an odd ball, tune it up and go hucking it around a track. The minute Forza does what you suggest, any sort of differentiating factor with the game is lost, and it just becomes another sim racer.

 

[serlemke]

To the people that are liking this, and you in particular: you do realize why Forza exists right? It doesn't need to be a super serious, down to brass tacks racing sim. It never was, and it never will be. Contrary to what you might think of this idea, the entire reason why Forza is still doing well, even with the move to PC and ultimately a larger, more advanced market then on consoles, is because of that simcade approach. The fact that I can take a relatively pedestrian vehicle, or an odd ball, tune it up and go hucking it around a track. The minute Forza does what you suggest, any sort of differentiating factor with the game is lost, and it just becomes another sim racer.

I remember back in time when horizon was launched that horizon was the arcade brother and forza would remain more close as an simulator. Now both are arcades, just forza is less than horizon.

 

[AnimaVesta]

All this game needs is more old classic fantasy track like: Iberian, Camino de Viejo, Monteserrat, Fujimi Kaido and New York.

They also need to bring back Hotlapping against your own cars. It just doesnt work like it used too. In Fm2 we had Local leaderboards for every track you set your fastest times on. Class specific. Not only does it improve you’re tuning, it also lets you know in which car you’re fastest.

There is just so much cool stuff we are missing that the older games all had, Homespaces...ffs why are they gone? The FM7 garage is **** and its still as confined and claustrophobic in movement as FM4 AutoVista. C’mon man let me at least be able to freely move around the garage instead of this bullsh.t max 1 meter distance.

We have a View car option which is well lit yet we cant even go to Photomode with this option.

 

[BoneSawTX]

All this game needs is more old classic fantasy track like: Iberian, Camino de Viejo, Monteserrat, Fujimi Kaido and New York.

Honestly every track I hate.

 

[toastinmgee1]

To the people that are liking this, and you in particular: you do realize why Forza exists right? It doesn't need to be a super serious, down to brass tacks racing sim. It never was, and it never will be. Contrary to what you might think of this idea, the entire reason why Forza is still doing well, even with the move to PC and ultimately a larger, more advanced market then on consoles, is because of that simcade approach. The fact that I can take a relatively pedestrian vehicle, or an odd ball, tune it up and go hucking it around a track. The minute Forza does what you suggest, any sort of differentiating factor with the game is lost, and it just becomes another sim racer.

Who are you to decide what Forza is or not? Do you realize that race penalties are coming in the next months? Do you not see that the physics are more accurate each version it's released? Do you realize you can "tune" any regular car to drive competitive against race cars in real life too?