The Forza Horizon series has enjoyed plenty of success despite not being as experienced as its peers, like Need For Speed or Gran Turismo. A significant reason for this is that Forza gives the best of both worlds; the realism and prestige of the Forza Motorsport series and the freedom and fun of an arcade racing simulator.
Plenty of unique events, fantastic graphics, and overall excellent gameplay make this series a massive hit with racing fans. Case in point, the latest installment, Forza Horizon 5, only took seven months to reach 20 million players back in June 2022.
With the upcoming Forza Horizon 6 on its way, Playground Games needs to improve upon an already nearly-perfect game, just as it did with Forza Horizon 5. So without further ado, here's what we know and want from the new upcoming installment in the Forza Horizon series.
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Forza Horizon 5 is still relatively fresh, having been released in November of 2021; however, since the series has been releasing a new game every two or so years, it wouldn't be wrong to speculate that work on the next installment has started.
Understandably, there isn't much confirmed info regarding what's coming in the sixth Forza game. Though we can expect a new game engine as both Forza Horizon 4 and 5 were made using Forza Horizon 3's engine, which is over six years old, and there are talks of a new engine being used for the next Forza Horizon game to keep up with next-gen gaming.
We can also expect an overhauled and improved Evolving Open-World system where at the beginning of the game, the map will be mostly bare and empty, but as time progresses, the map will be updated every month with brand-new festival sites, new buildings, and new racetracks.
In Forza 5, a cool feature was that you could enable race mode for certain cars like the Mercedes-AMG One, which resulted in the activation of front diffuser flaps, the full extension of the wing, front fender vents opening, and the car lowering by 37 mm in the front and 30 mm in the rear.
However, this feature was only available for the AMG One, so we can expect an updated version that includes the race mode for other cars like the Ford GT, the McLaren V1, and others and convertible animations for all convertible cars.
Lastly, a proper car football (soccer) game mode could also be available as a stadium, and a large football (soccer) was added to Forza Horizon 5, but whether it was due to a lack of time or another reason, you couldn't actually play car football, which presents the possibility of a car football (soccer) game mode being added for Forza 6.
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Forza fans have wanted a Forza Horizon game set in Japan since Forza 3, with many expecting Forza 4 and Forza 5 to be set in Japan, but as we all know, it didn't happen. Japan is the perfect setting for a Forza Horizon game as it's filled with scenic roads and is famous for heated midnight street races.
Despite all that, there is a chance that we will not get a Forza Horizon game set in Japan for Forza 6, and it's for a good reason too. Japan has been clamping down heavily on street races by tightening rules and handing out heavier fines, leading to a continuous decrease in street racing, with many racing clubs dismantled.
So it's understandable that Japan wouldn't like teens playing Forza racing games set in Japan that would encourage them to go out and race through the streets in real life.
Additionally, Japan has many big cities that are very intricate to go through with high speeds, which is something that Forza developers aren't fond of, as they've previously avoided such layouts in their games.
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Now that we've gone through things we know and speculate about the upcoming game let's discuss some features and changes that could make Forza 6 the greatest in the series.
Including houses in Forza Horizon 4's trailer gave Forza fans the hope of walking through your house and seeing your beloved cars in your garage and the ability to customize your house. This was not the case as it was only a fast travel spot, which disappointed fans heavily. So in Forza 6, why not have customizable houses that you can walk through and see a lineup of your favorite cars in the garage?
The customization in Forza Horizon 5 is fantastic, but it can be even better with more in-depth changes, like the addition of interior customization and the inclusion of nitrous, which is very weird that an arcade game like Forza lacks.
A better progression system that has you start with low-powered hatchbacks and has you progress to insanely-powered supercars would be much better as it motivates the player to play more. This is unlike the current system, where you get a supercar and a muscle car at pretty much the beginning of the game.
Additionally, a storyline would be wonderful as the game can get pretty dull after a while as it's just racing over and over again without any real end goal to strive for.
Lastly, adding midnight battles where players race 1v1, with the winner getting the opponent's car as their prize, would be a fun, high-stakes mini-game to see in Forza 6.
There is still plenty of time left until Forza 6 is released, and nothing is certain, but with these features and upgrades, Forza 6 could well become the best racing game of its year. While official release date for Forza Horizon 6 has not been revealed, we expect it to release in November 2023 before the holiday season.