Fans hoping to catch a first glimpse of Forza Horizon 6 were ultimately left disappointed in today’s Xbox Games Showcase, but there was a nugget of Forza franchise news as “the next Forza” was confirmed for 2026.
The game debuts came and went without so much as a peep from anything approaching a racing game, but it was left to Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming, to reveal a little more in his event outro.
Spencer made reference to the fact that 2026 will be the 25th anniversary of the Xbox platform — which launched with the original console on November 15, 2001. Commenting that it’s a major milestone for the system and “franchises that you helped build and make popular”, he noted some more titles that would be coming in this anniversary year.
“As we think about bringing a new generation of players to these iconic franchises, I’m excited to share the players will get to celebrate 25 years of Xbox with a new Fable, the next Forza, Gears of War: E-Day and the return of a classic that’s been with us since the beginning,” stated Spencer.
That statement was requoted and specifically dated as 2026 — rather than the more open-ended “25 years of Xbox” — in a subsequent article on Xbox Wire.
However it doesn’t take the keenest of eyes to spot that Spencer only mentioned the Forza franchise and not either game series within that, and that leaves us with several questions about why he wasn’t more specific.
Of course we are all expecting a new Forza Horizon game before too much longer, what with FH5 seemingly no longer getting car and content updates and its move to the PlayStation 5. The timing seems absolutely right for FH6, but then again Playground Games will also be working on the next Fable for 2026, having missed its original 2025 plan. PG now has two studios on a second site developing Fable, supported by Eidos Montreal, while its team at headquarters is still attending to developments on Horizon.
A sequel to Forza Motorsport seems unlikely at present, given its long genesis, still active support, and the fact it’ll be a mere three years old when the Xbox anniversary creeps round. There’s also a third possibility: some entirely new version of Forza or a replacement/sequel for the now-interred Forza Street.
Absent further clarity, we’re going to assume that it’ll be Forza Horizon 6 for the time being but hopefully we’ll be able to pin in down in due course.
