Forza Motorsport Developers Aren't Calling It Quits Just Yet (2024)

The first vital feature is Forza Insider. Passionate community players can join the special program and help the devs better understand what they feel the game lacks, where it shines, and so on. One of the perks includes trying early update playtests and offering feedback. Forza Insider is platform agnostic, so you can choose the gaming platform you prefer when you join.

While early update access might sound great for enthusiasts, getting in is not easy. The criteria depend on player region, platform, plus other unspecified details decided by the team. The latter most likely involves personal playtime length, how often you play, your in-game stats, how good you are at F. Motorsport, etc. The playtest has no release date yet, but you can register on the official webpage.

Those who get in and share feedback through surveys or discussions in the forums will be rewarded with free in-game FM credits. In other words, people will be putting in real work for digital compensation, which is a bit mind-boggling when you philosophically think about it.

Car Rewards Revamped

Turn 10 announced upcoming features and modes, includingSpectate and Drift modes, a Creative Hub and a Share Codes feature, Free Play Weather Options, and two new tracks.

The team listened to its audience, and it seems they heard some of their wants and wishes loud and clear. For instance, some players don't even bother with the single-player mode and like nothing more than unlocking cars by progressing in online multiplayer.

Thus, starting with the next major update, reward cars can also be earned in the Featured Multiplayer mode by playing a certain number of races. It's so odd that it took them over 10 months to implement this feature.

Refusing to give the player a progression choice during initial development when they thought up the game design could signal that something was amiss during the pre-production stages. Luckily, Update 12 will arrive in mid-September and take care of this missing feature.

Furthermore, completing arbitrary objectives in a Challenge Hub involving Career, Featured Multiplayer, and Rivals will earn you credits, cars, race suits, and other fun stuff. Previous Featured Tours are making a return later this year, so you can unlock past reward cars related to those events if you skipped them.

Two more tracks are set to make a dazzling appearance. Mid-October's Update 13 brings back Forza Motorsport 4's classic Sunset Peninsula with five layouts. December's Update 15 will feature Bathurst and a Featured Tour to celebrate Australian cars and motorsport racing.

Peeping Tom

The much-anticipated reworked Spectate Mode is in its final stages and will be included in Private Multiplayer during September's major update.

It acts like a live replay, with fan-request features like Full-Field Dynamic Driver List and Lap Counter, a Ticker with leader times, race intervals, position changes, penalty times, or pit stops.

There's also a Track Map, Driver Data, True Race Start / Race End from 3-2-1 to Podium, Default Spectate Camera, New Rail Cam and Point of Interest Camera Options, an Improved Control Panel, a Customizable HUD, Minimized Switch Lag, and the ability to save the replay after you spectate it.

The latter Save Replay feature comes with an unfortunate twist, though. The replay save length limit hasn't changed, and it varies depending on factors like the number of cars or the duration of a race.

Drifting

Channel your inner Tokyo Drift skills in Forza Motorsport with the all-new Drift Mode coming to Free Play and Private Multiplayer. A curated selection of Formula Drift cars is coming to the showroom, but there's no timer on the clock yet. All we know is that it's arriving sometime in the following months.

So, how does it work? Well, the player racks up Drift Score points depending on speed, angle, and timing. Be careful, though, for it's frustrating when you score major points only to lose them all by crashing or being unable to chain drifts together fast enough.

Drift-specific HUD elements are also inbound and can be enabled in the Gameplay & HUD settings. Aside from the ability to host drop in and out Drift Meetups in Private Multiplayer, a public Drift Meetup lobby is also set to join Featured Multiplayer at some point, although not at launch.

Community Sharing is Caring

A much-beloved Forza Horizon 5 feature is soon making a dazzling appearance in Forza Motorsport. The Media tab is overhauled into a Creative Hub, where players can share their designs, vinyl groups, tunes, photos, and replays.

Share Codes allows code generation for every UGC (User-Generated Content) item in the game. It's retroactive and has new streamlined search and sorting options.

You're in luck if you're familiar with Forza Horizon 5's Livery Editor. The team is working on an updated version of the current Edit Layer Tool, making the UI (User Interface) similar to FH5.

Riders of the Storm

The next update also brings new weather customization tools to Free Play and Private Multiplayer. Weather sequences probability can also be adjusted to make things predictable or surprising, depending on your choice.

You can set the weather types at the Start, Mid, and End-Race moments and choose from Partly Cloudy, Overcast Cloudy, Looming Clouds, Thunderclouds, Lightning Clouds, Patchy Fog, Thin Fog, Dense Fog, Summer Drizzle, Drizzle, Light Rain, Moderate Rain, Heavy Rain, Rain Thunder, and Rain Lightning.

All this and more, like a Featured Multiplayer Community Choice slot, audio cues for the car proximity radar, improved machine learning systems,or a new advanced ghosting system, are coming to FM in the following months.

Not Dead Yet

While the Forza Motorsport player count is extremely low on Steam, and the 41% user review score isn't helping it get any traction, things could be worse for the Microsoft-exclusive racing title.Sony, for instance, is projected to lose over $200 million with their latest online hero shooter, Concord. Only 178 players cared enough to turn on the game in the past 24 hours, which is abysmal, to say the least.

Turn 10 has been doing a rather good job with constant updates since it came out, and it truly seems like there's something there to save. At least, that's what their sustained efforts suggest. Otherwise, why bother spending millions of dollars monthly for updates and improvements if no one plays the game?

It could be that the racing title has a potentially faithful and profitable player base, enough to generate some hefty cash over time. Or... it could be an assumed Hail Mary pass, given that Microsoft could theoretically buy the entire African continent.

And that's no joke, either. In 2023, Statista claimed Africa's GDP was $3.1 trillion, while Bill Gates's company is currently worth $3.07 trillion. They would still have $60 billion left, if my math skills are "mathing," as the young folk say over on the TikToks and whatnot.

Unfortunately for developer Turn 10, it will still take around six months to see some changes in player behavior.