Microsoft Unlikely To Release a New Forza Title in 2019

I don't doubt many players are starting to suffer from sequel fatigue of the Motorsport series, there are only so many times you can add new cars and tracks and pass it off as a new game (a £50 investment, potentially up to £80) within a single generation.

The best strategy is to continue supporting the current Motorsport and Horizon titles until the next generation comes out, which leaves enough time to give the series an overhaul on the new platform.
 
Good, they need to reformat the Motorsports games if you ask me. They started feeling very cookie cutter with the 2 year release schedule. All of the games after FM4 seemed to be released with bugs and glitches (mostly minor) that sometimes go unresolved but contribute to an overall lower quality feel to them.

I am looking forward to an FM8, but hopefully on next gen after a longer development time for higher quality product.
 
Microsoft could have a third Forza game in production, like Forza Bikes or Forza Rally. They could also throw in a PGR reboot. We will see what will happen in 2019.

Forza Motorsport 8 could indeed become a launch title for a new Xbox console in 2020. But if thats the case, they have to be working on that title already. I still dont buy that “the whole team and all artists are busy fixing Forza 7“ story. No way, Jose.

Maybe the next Forza Motorsport wont be titled FM8?
 
Microsoft could have a third Forza game in production, like Forza Bikes or Forza Rally. They could also throw in a PGR reboot. We will see what will happen in 2019.

Forza Motorsport 8 could indeed become a launch title for a new Xbox console in 2020. But if thats the case, they have to be working on that title already. I still dont buy that “the whole team and all artists are busy fixing Forza 7“ story. No way, Jose.

Maybe the next Forza Motorsport wont be titled FM8?

PGR reboot would be awesome as Horizon does not really fit the bill there.
 
Microsoft could have a third Forza game in production, like Forza Bikes or Forza Rally. They could also throw in a PGR reboot. We will see what will happen in 2019.

Given the number of bike-related pieces of clothing in FH4, I'd almost put money on them showing up in Horizon instead of their own game.

As for a PGR reboot; I know it's a much-loved series, but releasing a new one would only serve to fracture the player base Xbox has for Forza right now. It'd run so close to where FH is these days that it'd just seem superfluous.

Forza Motorsport 8 could indeed become a launch title for a new Xbox console in 2020. But if thats the case, they have to be working on that title already. I still dont buy that “the whole team and all artists are busy fixing Forza 7“ story. No way, Jose.

Maybe the next Forza Motorsport wont be titled FM8?

It's possible the team could be dropping the number system, yeah. I'm in the "next Forza as launch title for new gen" camp as well.

I'm sure there's some part of the team looking at the next game. But I get the feeling it won't require as much of a jump, or a redo of assets, as this last generational change did. All of the assets were already 4K-ready for FM7, and I doubt the next gen will be targeting 8K for 2020. I'd love to see the extra console horsepower put towards things like genuinely dynamic weather, more cars on track, a better damage model, and more lively tracks. The basic building blocks are already there, IMO.
 
I'm glad to hear this. FM7 is the most complete Forza game in terms of cars and tracks. We don't need a new one to replace it so soon.
 
I'd love to see the extra console horsepower put towards things like genuinely dynamic weather, more cars on track, a better damage model, and more lively tracks. The basic building blocks are already there, IMO.

If we are not going to see more severe damage modelling and parts coming off cars as a result of manufacturer constraints, it would be nice to see enhanced detail for light damage.

For example, I would like to see traded paint - After a public lobby online race, your vehicle could look like a BMW art car! :D
 
Forza Bikes
IMO, there will be Bikes DLC for Horizon and since that bikes will be part of both Forzas.

Dont think about next xbox gen as "next gen", it will be another premium console aimed at 4K@60fps and low cost cloud gaming device. Also, there wouldnt be any exclusives, most likely, only "enchanted" titles.
 
They need some time off after the MESS called Forza Motorsport 7. My diehard forza friend doesnt even play anymore and the crappy splitscreen experiences we had have been swapped for my fav GT Sport....and even they been somewhat mediocre...releasing a hold over game till Ps5 comes out.
 
To me anything past the xbox 360 era just feels like the same game just with a reskin

I mean, it isn't; there's a big difference between FM5 and FM7, and that's not just looking at the car and track lists.

Nonetheless, I'm sure other folks feel the same. I've said it before, but the racing genre is ideally suited to a few things, and the games-as-a-service model is one of them.

If the next Forza Motorsport were a launch title on Scarlett, it could get a three or even four year lifespan, with significant updates planned across them. These aren't story-based games, there's no real need for a sequel. Keep iterating, a la Fortnite or Overwatch, and cultivate a long-term community.

My one major objection to that approach is major changes to the physics. I'm probably in the minority there, but I think devs should stop endlessly fiddling with tire models in single titles. It plays havoc on the leaderboards, throws tuners' work away, and generally makes it hard to compare otherwise similar accomplishments from across a game's life.

So there's still hope for FM7 expansions?

IIRC, Esaki hasn't ruled that out. It's a delicate balance though: FH3 got some criticism for having an "Ultimate" edition that didn't actually include the expansions. Even though that was clear by the description, it still left a sour taste in some players' mouths, and sure enough, FH4's Ultimate includes both planned expansions.

Expansions could come to help keep the game feeling fresh as it approaches its second birthday. They could also tie into a soft relaunch of sorts, a "FM7 Spec 2.0" to borrow from its immediate competitor.
 
Definitely next gen, and it may be the only Motorsport release for the generation with periodic updates as needed/warranted. Motorsport just doesn't sell like Horizon does. I'm guessing more resources will shift to Horizon so they can not only more easily keep up with new releases every other year, they may even accelerate Horizon releases to yearly.
 
Dont think about next xbox gen as "next gen", it will be another premium console aimed at 4K@60fps and low cost cloud gaming device. Also, there wouldnt be any exclusives, most likely, only "enchanted" titles.

Maybe i could agree to you, however, i think you forgot just how far behind the original Xbox One is right now, from a technological point of view. Continuing the XOne family means even the next console would be limited by the original hardware in some way, since all games would need to run even on the old console. No good.
 
i think you forgot just how far behind the original Xbox One is right now
While it was, is and always be a POS, its not so far from current leader aka Xbox One X. Main problem of current gen is awfull CPU, which isnt any different on all 4 systems. In case of GPU, they can always upscale from 720p or downgrade some visual effects.

First and foremost, both publishers and M$ dont want to rise there audience from 0, thats why backward compatibility will be a thing for next gen. With past gen and current gen this wasnt easily achievable because of how different was architectures of different generations.
 
Maybe the next Forza Motorsport wont be titled FM8?

I'm just speculating here, but since the next Halo will be called "Halo: Infinite", if you flip the 8 to its side, we get the "infinity" symbol. Forza Infinity? It could hint at the next Xbox console name?

Infinite could follow the "games as a service" model (constant updates, player engagement thru events), GTS is doing this already with content updates. Look at the amount of Forzathons now, FH3, FH4 and FM7, its starting to feel like a job. haha

In any case, I'm glad Chris stated they will rework FM7, he mentioned physics and even lighting. I hope they do put out an expansion, kinda like a Season 2. The easiest thing they could do, in terms of tracks, is add Night/Weather to tracks that don't have it. Dubai at night should've been there day one. The fantasy tracks have no excuse, they are fantasy afterall.

We also have 1 more free car pack, so maybe they are waiting for a big moment to release it.
 
Microsoft could have a third Forza game in production, like Forza Bikes or Forza Rally. They could also throw in a PGR reboot. We will see what will happen in 2019.

Forza Motorsport 8 could indeed become a launch title for a new Xbox console in 2020. But if thats the case, they have to be working on that title already. I still dont buy that “the whole team and all artists are busy fixing Forza 7“ story. No way, Jose.

Maybe the next Forza Motorsport wont be titled FM8?

I doubt the WHOLE team is working on Forza 7, but I'm also sure there probably won't be a new game in 2019. Instead, I suspect a sizeable contingent is trying to use the extra year to work on a next-gen launch Forza 8 for 2020, so that it's less barebones than Forza 5. And the gameplay work they are putting into FM7 can be put into that new game.

I also don't doubt that Microsoft are fearing either fatigue or over-saturation, at having potentially FOUR mainline Forza games in a single console generation, and three Horizons.
 
I did complain to some friends that Forza needs to get off it's 2 year cadence. There is only so much you can do in 2 years, before things begin to seem cookie cutter like. And imagine if Turn 10 had one more year to work on FM7. I'm willing to bet the stability issues wouldn't have happened.

So they have a little more time to work on the next Forza motorsport title. That's good. Hopefully they can make it more of a serious racer, than what it is now. I really feel FM would greatly benefit from some discipline when needed, as long as there are still places to let the hair down.

Turn 10 seems to actually be listening this time. They've done well with the drag, ant the drift pack looks decent enough. I for one want this trend to continue.
 
Another angle to consider is that of the next console generation. Microsoft has already confirmed it’s working on it, under the codename “Scarlett”. Perhaps a year off is to ensure the best possible Forza Motorsport 8 as a launch title in 2020.

I honestly don't think that has anything to do with it. Horizon is already WAY popular than Motorsport is, I bet Microsoft would much rather have FH5 as a new console seller rather than FM8.

I believe that FM7 sales have been so underwhelmingly disappointing that Microsoft and Turn 10 had a good meeting about the future of the Motorsport franchise. I bet they had expansion DLCs for FM7 planned but with the low sales of the base game they knew the expansions would not sell well either and would certainly not be cost efficient, so they probably put development of that on hold and either add it to the FM8 base game later or use it there as expansions. They finally started to realize that copy/pasting the base game and then just keep releasing car pack after car pack without changing the core of the game ain't cutting it anymore. That is why we see such a big increase in post-launch FM7 support with the new track limits, drift update, experimental drag, race regulations, better colision mechanics, wheel support, ... This is all great stuff but these will all be upcoming features for the inevitable FM8 release at some point in time, they are just using FM7 as a live testing environment for it. Sure they now say that they are not working on FM8, but in a way they are. All these great new FM7 core gameplay changes we get now are first and foremost developed for the future FM releases. In the past they have also used FM6 as a live testing platform for Forza RC, that was also mainly with Forza RC for future FM titles in mind.

Skipping 1 year in Forza releases does make sense for both companies:

2019: Turn 10 working on core gameplay changes for FM8 but using FM7 to test it, Playground working on new Fable game and recruiting more staff.
2020: FM8 (Turn 10) & new Fable (Playground)
2021: FH5 (Playground)

Ralph Fulton already stated FH4 will receive a lot of live service updates, probably knowing the next FH won't be 2 years away but 3, so they will need to keep the FH fans longer busy with FH4 than they did with previous games.

And Chris Esaki indeed stating they have been given the luxury of time, also indicating that the next FM won't be the usual 2 years after the previous one.

All speculation, but it does make a lot of sense.
 
Nonetheless, I'm sure other folks feel the same. I've said it before, but the racing genre is ideally suited to a few things, and the games-as-a-service model is one of them.

This! Exactly, this! I've been saying this for a long time and taking crap for it.

Paying full price for every iteration and throw away achievements like wheel FFB setup, tuning setups and designs is not really my favorite activity.
Sure, Forza has a system to import these from previous titles, but really, tuning setups are worthless, as physics changes across titles and just for example, FH3 designs do not fit the same cars in FH4. I had to modify each one (that I had a car for).

And I'm not a fan of unlocking all cars across two years over and over again. I am playing the game to drive the cars, not grind to unlock them and get the one I wanted when I'm disgusted by the game already due to grinding. My dream is a common garage for all Forza titles, where you unlock everything once.

Is it really impossible to always sell the current version of the full game for full price and major version upgrades for existing users for fraction of a price? Or pay some reasonable monthly fee? People are always telling me that would not sell. But really? I'd rather that than this iteration game. I'm sick and tired of it.
 
Yea I agree, it gets very tiresome year after year, feeling like you're doing the same thing over and over again from scratch. I'm just hoping for a more focused and more "motorsport" related game for FH8 whenever it comes out.
 
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