Forza Horizon 3 has been a marvel for both the Xbox and Forza brands since releasing last year. The open world racer raked in a number of awards after its initial reveal at E3, and has gone on to receive not only the title of “Best Sports/Racing Game” of 2016 and the D.I.C.E “Racing Game of the Year”, but has also breached the Top 10 best-selling games in the UK — quite the number of accolades for the franchise.
It should come as no surprise then that the open world racer has helped to propel the Forza franchise past the $1 billion retail sales milestone over the course of its 11 year tenure and 9 games. As a result, Forza has become the market’s most popular racing game franchise this generation, and with the exception of Forza Motorsport 5 in 2013 every full game in the franchise has gone on to achieve a high-80s or above score on Metacritic.
While Forza has continued to grow with each passing title, the genre as a whole has suffered from dwindling sales as we’ve discussed in the past. Alan Hartman, head of Turn 10 Studios believes otherwise:
“I’ve heard that kind of chatter in the industry around ‘the demise of the racing genre’. I just don’t buy into it. When you look at the history of the genre, Gran Turismo — the grandfather of racing sims — it came in and did huge numbers. It was the No.1 selling franchise.
Then there was the rise of Need for Speed, especially during the last generation and the generation before. You can look at those two franchises and where they are right now and say: ‘Well, we’ve had a decline in the racing genre’. But at the same time, we’ve done great in the last 15 years. We’ve been growing the franchise, growing the business.”
These words are seemingly echoed by the team’s actions, as Turn 10 creative director Dan Greenawalt states the developer tried hitting the “reset” button with the launch of the Xbox One and Forza Motorsport 5 back in 2013. A means of rethinking the way the games are built and who the target audience was and how that was being communicated, and relying on that more than looking at the competition.
Horizon 3 brought back fan-favourite features like the Auction House and store fronts. Forza Blueprint allows any player to progress through the game in their own respective style. The game is also the first full title in the franchise to be made available on PC. All of these features combine to cast a wider net within the genre.
For the past several years the driving force behind the franchise has been turning those that love cars into gamers and gamers into car lovers. While we can’t speak on the success of this ethos in terms of statistics, it has resulted in a number of features that have made the series more inviting (and challenging) to players of all skill levels.
With Forza being a major player in the genre with such frequent releases and a devout player base to boot, what’s next for the franchise? 2017 looks to be one of the most eventful years for the genre yet, with the likes of Project CARS 2, the expected release of GT Sport, a new Need For Speed, and even the continued evolution of Assetto Corsa, all vying for a share of the player’s attention. Hartman remains optimistic, echoing our own thoughts on 2017 being the best year for the genre:
“We will be probably sitting here in a year from now and talking about the perceived resurgence of the racing genre, because of the number of sales that we have seen across all these titles. Great games will find great big audiences. It maybe tough occasionally for small titles to get attention, but as part of being first party and part of the Xbox platform, I welcome them in. I want them. I love the Assetto Corsa team, I love what they’re doing and the perspective they are bringing in and I’m excited for what they do next. I would rather be having this conversation about a load of great racing games coming out this year, than you saying that there doesn’t seem to be any.”
Forza Motorsport 7 is expected to join the battle arena some time this autumn, after being confirmed to exist by Fanatec’s CEO. We can’t wait to see what the racing landscape looks like by the end of the year. Our biggest concern? Finding time to play everything.
[Sources: gamesindustry.biz, Xbox Wire]
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