I get that… we avoid the public lobbies for the most part and our organized weekly racing is privately hosted so keeps most of the riff raff out. The group has roots in “no assist racing” so that filters most though we aren’t as strict on that now but more being a smaller group.
FM5 is where the old group splintered with the X360 to XBONE transition with several moving to PC and iRacing as they didn’t want to move to the new console.
Gamepass Ultimate is great for me as I can play across PC and Console plus kids can play my owned or GP games as well since we had multiple devices. I’m pretty limited on buying new games, especially at full price. GP is a decent value for me still but I’m starting to see where I’m moving towards Steam more and more.
I don’t disagree that it’s in a better state now… but it’s taken WAY too long to get there, especially considering it’s developmental cycle. It’s still missing some QOL features that the harder core sim racers like my group could use (some actually in titles such as FM4)
My specific issue is that I can’t play using a controller anymore. It is still what I consider the best playing race sim on controller, but the nerve issues I have forced me to go to the wheel and it was NOT a good experience on the console. This latest title on console is the best yet, but it’s just so much better on PC.
The issue is that I can jump into Assetto Corsa and with the mods available, it both looks and handles MILES ahead on my rig PLUS I can use VR.
I started on a PS with GT and GT2 but when Forza came out, I moved to XBOX and it’s the title that has pretty much kept me there. It feels like this might end up being the end of the line for XBOX and FORZA for me finally… hell of a run if so.
*I made some advanced control setting changes tonight and think it’s definitely improved. I’ll keep working at it as long as our group stays with FM, but the majority is now on PC with wheel combos with the ability to run other titles that just give us a better experience. We shall see.
So… decided to take a big swing at my advanced input settings and grabbed the numbers from one of the guys running a DD setup (MOZA).… made a pretty big difference so my setup does not feel like complete garbage anymore. Ran with the guys on our regular Wednesday night session doing Spec Ladders with various class SPEC builds we’ve come up with. I’m still slow as molasses but it felt pretty good and I had occasional bits of decent racing. Might be some hope yet.
Will be interesting to what the future of Forza Motorsport holds based on yesterday’s Microsoft layoff announcements.
Turn 10 has been hit w/ a massive layoff, rumors are it’s not just engine support for PGG / Horizon.
That being said:
unless everyone knows the positions that were cut, then it’s jumping to conclusions.
the graphics engines and physics engine design team, does not need to be a full room of people once the engine is done, support can be done w/ 1 or 2 coders.
Cars and tracks, once the major lineup work is done, you don’t need to have multiple teams travelling to different locales at the same time to make a release lineup, again, you can cut everyone except one small team to laser scan and develop cars, and one team to travel and laser scan tracks.
80 man team is an aggressively large support team if they are just there to support PGG / Horizon Series.
So out of 70, prolly got 10 senior coders, about 20 for track development ( between coders, graphics artists, laser tech, etc), 15-20 for cars. and about 10 coders for network / ui code, and prolly 10 people for audio code. and shuffle a few around for AI code.
Nearly EVERY studio has been laying off people and pushing them to use AI Assisted coding.
This is sad news. The game which was supported only for 2 years, nowadays is almost there where should be when they released it. Better than Gran Turismo 7 in many things, semi-realistic, with better matematically physical model than GT7, penalty system, but missing split screen is now closed.
Where are all you promises Turn 10 and Microsoft? You simply will burry just because players wants to more arcade Forza Horizont. The only one direct competitor of Gran Turismo, the Xbox brand. I was bought my Xbox One S (2017) only for Forza Motorsport 6 as well as PS5 for GT7/Sport.
I hate corporate decison. They send to grave my favourite racing game for what?
“As our team shifts its focus toward delivering the best possible experience with Forza Horizon 6 in 2026, we do not plan to introduce new cars, tracks, features, or regular bug fixes for Forza Motorsport. However, we will continue supporting the game by keeping online servers active, hosting special events and competitions, and reintroducing previously released Featured Tours and reward cars on a monthly basis, until all content is available for you to enjoy anytime.”
Unfortunately that is the way of the world these days. Not just software but anything really… If you get more than a couple of years from it you are ahead of the curve.
The thing that pisses me off more than anything is the lies.
Forza Motorsport as a Service likely got the axe because Halo as a Service failed miserably, as did Destiny II.
That being said, I think something in this route wouldnt be bad at all.
Forza Motorsport → Main Core, then after training and what not, have it branch out to things like Circuit Racing, Rally, Point to Point, or Street. in which Horizon type events would be added to the core.
from there FHx would be full price DLC for the Service,
and expansions like FM’26, FM’27, FR (Forza Rally), FS (Forza Street) would be like $30-50 DLC w/ new tracks etc.
Baseline consumers don’t understand, the staff cut doesn’t mean Forza is dead,
w/ AI writing most of the code and only a few code techs supervising it, the only thing you really need is engineers to supervise the laser scanning of cars, parts, tracks etc.
IMHO, Turn10 simply needs a fresh perspective on the market.
More Multiple screen options for the PC, as well as VR Options
I’m with a no assist racing group that started out with the “car club” feature in the Original Forza Motorsport and really came to life in FM2. Some of us have been around practically from the start. There was still a core of about 10 of us running the last Forza Motorsport meeting once a week for online race nights. Most of us moved on to PC primarily and have dabbled in other titles (we checked almost all of them out in some form or another) but Forza was still the root of our identity. We had such high hopes for the latest “built from the ground up” and though many of the improvements we were hoping to see helped, there were just too many empty promises and wishes of what could be. Essentially when the final update was announced (with much glee being Fujimi Kaido) we saw the writing on the wall that the end of the road was reached with a whimper to celebrate the 20th Anniversary rather than a bang.
We started exploring other titles again for a replacement. It was a good exploration to find things like AC and AMS2 that we definitely had been sleeping on a bit. AC is where we landed and although it’s an older title, with Content Manger, CSP, PURE, VR and robust mod support, it’s an awesome looking title that has given us a great weekly experience. We haven’t been able to increase our numbers a lot, but we’ve drawn in a couple of really good members, had some great racing but we definitely miss the car building and customization aspects that Forza gave us.
It took Microsoft and Turn10 a hiatus of EIGHT years to deliver what was supposed to be the ultimate reboot and it missed… BADLY for those of us looking for a sim like experience (especially on console). It’s the end of an era and coming up in March, those 10 OGs of the group are meeting up in Nashville for an in person meetup for the first and quite possibly the final time. I think it will take a MIRACLE for Forza Motorsport to be what it SHOULD BE.
I’ve been with forza so long, it’s hard to go anywhere else.
I was on iRacing for a good bit, but due to lack of time to practice I had to cut it from the budget.
Yup, I feel that completely. I ended up having to go away from controller to wheel and the wheel just feels so much better on PC than console with Forza. That and Heatblur’s Phantom helped force my hand to jump back into PC with both feet, not to mention VR.
I tried iRacing for a bit but it’s been about 10 years and with my limited time, also just didn’t seem justified to budget for and they stopped doing sales for anything more than 25% off for existing members.
I was looking to drop my Gamepass membership when my Ultimate expired, but I still have a youngster at that house that can take advantage of Family Sharing. After evaluating that we could drop down to Essentials, that opened up the ability to jump on the 1yr Black Friday sale with iRacing and still be less overall on the budget.
I won’t have much time to participate but over half of the guys in our group are running iRacing too, including my oldest son, so for less than $10/mo. I figured worth another go.
Will always LOVE FORZA but man, just another title in the pile of “what could have been”.
Yeah, the end of Forza Motorsport is a sad story. I was hoping a lot. My first console, the Xbox One S bought only and mainly because of Forza Motorsport 6. I never had an opportunity to drive Forza Motorsport 4 (Xbox 360), which is by the many opinions the best FM ever because of the great and most enjoyable campaign.
I was hoping a lot for fictional tracks, such as Prague or Rio, etc., and split-screen. Despite that is still one of the best racing games on the Xbox console. In my eyes is better than Forza Horizon, but I like more realistic games, so therefore.
Forza Motorsport is generally better simcade than Gran Turismo 7, just because in FM we have real damage and its impact on the car on the track in races. So, just for this, is heartbreaking to see Forza Motorsport die, and only here and GT7 I can drive my favourite car: 1967 Lamborghini Miura P400.
Is sad to see Gran Turismo 7 still supported, but the main competitor, Forza Motorsport, is not supported anymore.
PS: I believe, just my opinion, if Microsoft is willing to release FM on PlayStation, such as Forza Horizon, the typical GT player would be surprised how good the main competitor is, but that never happens.
For clarification, FM isn’t dead, the staffing cuts and shift to FH6 Support don’t mean anything,
After FM6 released, they cut staff and shifted everyone to FH Support, then brought in a new team for FM7.
If I had to Rate each:
FM4
FM7
FM2
FM1
FM3
FM6
FM5
I can’t rate FM as a service because I havent tried it.
I had planned once my move was finished and everything was setup since I have game pass ultimate to try it on PC.
I was referring to discounted iRacing memberships.
I’ve been doing Gamepass mostly with sale priced gift cards and stacking them up to three years for almost as long as I’ve had it. Also used rewards to earn free month frequently to get the costs anywhere from 35-50% off. The most recent price hike with plan restructuring plus the neutering of the rewards program was enough to take a serious look again at the value of Ultimate for me.
Dropped down to Essentials so my son can play multiplayer or any of my owned titles. He’s getting to where he’s probably going oing to PC in the next couple of years and working so he’ll be free to choose his own path.
I use Ultimate to have the cloud ability and to be able to play NHL via Cloud on my PC *(well laptop, as I’m still in the process of moving so everything is still in storage or not setup.)