Forza Motorsport has come away from The Game Awards 2023 with two trophies for Innovation in Accessibility and Best Sports/Racing Game, while the Gran Turismo series missed out in both the categories for which it was nominated.
It’s probably very little surprise that another Forza game has grabbed the Innovation in Accessibility gong, with Forza Horizon 5 a previous recipient — and Forza now winning two trophies in the four years since the category was introduced.
The series has always done well as far as accessibility goes, with myriad options for gamers with vision impairments, including subtitles, color blindness filters, text size, and screen reading/audio description.
Forza Motorsport doubled-down on this by adding a Blind Driving Assist feature, allowing players with total vision loss to race — in a first for racing games — although we note that sign language support hasn’t made the jump from Forza Horizon 5 where both American (ASL) and British (BSL) are supported.
Receiving the award from co-host Sydnee Goodman, Katrin Hilman — accessibility development lead at Turn 10 — commented: “I think we’ve made the most accessible racing game ever, playable by people across the mobility and vision spectrum.”
Neha Chintala, gameplay and accessibility producer on Forza Motorsport, paid tribute to the game’s audio and UI team, and the title’s accessibility consultant Brandon Cole, adding: “We’re really proud of the work we’ve been able to do.”
Forza Motorsport also picked up the still oddly fused Best Sports/Racing Game category — a fifth win for a Forza game — beating F1 23, Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 Turbocharged, The Crew Motorfest, and soccer title EA Sports FC 24; one of these things is not like the others…
This award was announced in a bizarre 18-second blitz as co-host Geoff Keighley seemed to be speed-running through categories that didn’t include noir RPGs or the potential for baffled celebrity guests between new game trailers. Gonzo the Muppet and Camilla the Chicken got more screen time, by two entire minutes…
It was a less successful night for Gran Turismo, which was also up for two categories but lost out in both.
2022’s Best Sports/Racing Game title, Gran Turismo 7, was nominated in the Best VR/AR category, but finished behind fellow PS VR2 title Resident Evil Village VR Mode. Meanwhile the Gran Turismo movie lost out to PlayStation Productions stablemate The Last of Us in the Best Adaptation category.
The biggest winner of the evening was Baldur’s Gate 3, which picked up six awards in total including the overall Game of the Year title.
Category nominees for The Game Awards are selected by a panel of 100 gaming media and influencer outlets worldwide, with winners determined by a mixture of a small jury board and public voting — weighted 90:10 in the jury’s favor.
See more articles on Forza Motorsport, Gran Turismo 7, Gran Turismo Movie, and The Game Awards.
