The next expansion pack for Playground Games’ open-world racer is around the corner and, as usual, there’s more than a handful of speculation as to what it could contain.
Like its predecessor, Forza Horizon 4’s first expansion was based on geography. Fortune Island, released in December 2018, added an entirely new area to the United Kingdom-influenced world of FH4. This mirrored Blizzard Mountain, the first expansion in Forza Horizon 3, and for that matter Storm Island in FH2.
Playground had pencilled in the second expansion for the first half of 2019 — a point we’re rapidly approaching — and it’s due to make an appearance this weekend at the E3 presentation. However, rumors abound before the official unveiling that, like FH3’s Hot Wheels Expansion, it could take a distinctly toy-like theme.
A well-known source on XBox affairs, Klobrille, commented on the ResetEra forums that the second expansion for FH4 would be the biggest expansion to a Horizon game to date, even quoting that it would be “almost like a new game”. He added a note that it would be “based on a globally-known IP”, then made a seemingly throwaway comment about pizza.
He followed that up with this Tweet:
Like it or not, but I love pizza.
Eating a pizza gives me joy.
Gaming is cool, too.
Obviously you don’t get what I’m trying to tell you, it will make sense soon enough.
— Klobrille (@klobrille) May 27, 2019
It seems cryptic, but reading the first letter of each new line — a type of wordplay known as an acrostic, once made famous by The Grand Tour’s James May — you can quite clearly spell out LEGO. All in capitals like it should be too. The strange comment about pizza makes for a very obvious link between the forum post mentioning the FH4 expansion and this LEGO acrostic Tweet, and LEGO is certainly a globally known IP. Thus the rumors.
A LEGO expansion for FH4 wouldn’t be out of character for either franchise. Forza Horizon has shown few qualms about adding fictional vehicles to its roster, including both Hot Wheels and the Warthog from the Halo game series. As the Hot Wheels vehicles are already in FH4, they’re off the menu.
For its part, LEGO has been churning out vehicle model kits with quite some regularity. We’ve seen a LEGO Caterham, a LEGO Bugatti Chiron, a LEGO Goldfinger Aston Martin DB5, and all sorts of smaller, less expensive models in its “speed champions” line.
Of course the Hot Wheels expansions brought their own environmental concerns too, by way of that iconic orange track. We’re not sure what form a LEGO track could even take, as the toy line’s roads are essentially flat, 10-inch square pieces. The LEGO Racers line does feature some locking track pieces, which may have a role to play.
There’s also the question of how LEGO would make this expansion “like a new game”. Perhaps it could allow players to build — or dynamically disassemble — their own vehicles and track?
Nevertheless, for now this is just a rumor. We’ll find out for certain this coming Sunday, but you can leave your thoughts on both the good and bad of this idea in the comments.
Additional images courtesy of T0MMY3688 and Populuxe Cowboy.
See more articles on Forza Horizon 4 DLC and Lego.
