{"id":35611,"date":"2023-09-22T00:00:56","date_gmt":"2023-09-21T23:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.xtremeservers.com\/blog\/how-forza-motorsport-evolved-into-a-racing-platform-for-the-future\/"},"modified":"2023-09-22T00:00:56","modified_gmt":"2023-09-21T23:00:56","slug":"how-forza-motorsport-evolved-into-a-racing-platform-for-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xtremeservers.com\/blog\/how-forza-motorsport-evolved-into-a-racing-platform-for-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"How Forza Motorsport Evolved Into a ‘Racing Platform for the Future’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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2019 was some year. Baby Yoda. The end of Avengers and Game of Thrones. Two separate Fyre Festival documentaries. The first documented case of COVID-19. Suffice to say, there was\u2026 plenty going on. In fact, just about all we didn\u2019t<\/em> get in 2019 was a new instalment of the Forza Motorsport series.<\/p>\n

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We were <\/em>due for it, so to speak. Since the arrival of the original in 2005, a new Forza Motorsport had dependably arrived every two years \u2013 across three generations of Xbox console hardware \u2013 for over a decade. But there would be no Forza Motorsport in 2019<\/u><\/a>, despite the fact it had been two years since the launch of 2017\u2019s Forza Motorsport 7. There\u2019d be no Forza Motorsport in 2020, 2021, or 2022 either.<\/p>\n

Building the next evolution of the Forza Motorsport series was going to take time, because the next evolution of the Forza Motorsport series had to be more than just a product. It was going to be a platform.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe supported Forza Motorsport 7 more than we had any of the previous Motorsports,\u201d explains Forza Racing Franchise Creative Director Dan Greenawalt. \u201cSo there were a lot of updates, there were changes \u2013 both free and paid. We really supported that game. And you could see the trend from Horizon 4 and into Horizon 5, and Horizon 3 even, where there\u2019s just more supporting of our games going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made some pretty fundamental changes in Forza Motorsport 7. Some based on fan feedback and reaction, and some based on things we wanted to do. But looking at Forza all up, we believed there was a new chapter; there was a time to turn the page.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking at Forza all up, we believed there was a new chapter; there was a time to turn the page.<\/section>\n

According to Greenawalt, it was time to embrace what made the Motorsport and Horizon pillars of Forza special in their own separate ways. The answer was to celebrate Forza Motorsport\u2019s focus on skill and competition by crafting it into a competitive \u201cracing platform for the future\u201d that can evolve with its audience.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to note that, as far as Turn 10 is concerned, Forza Motorsport\u2019s growth into a platform means taking the traditional Forza Motorsport formula and using it as the foundation for a growing world of racing \u2013 not turning the long-running racing sim into a typical live-service game. Don\u2019t expect a limited set of content and salvoes of battle pass mumbo jumbo to follow here.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur approach right now is not to make a games-as-a-service,\u201d stresses Greenawalt. \u201cThis is a massive game, and it\u2019s launching for a $70 price, and there is a premium add-on. This is a massive AAA launch, so it\u2019s not actually becoming a, \u2018Hey, launch small and build over time.\u2019 It\u2019s not a service game. This is a AAA game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing is it\u2019s being supported with a backend that is more connected than ever, and gamers are more connected now. So we\u2019re able to basically do both. We can have a massive AAA launch, and then we can build a platform over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Building that platform means a constant supply of new content, including cars and circuits. The Forza Motorsport series has traditionally benefited from a strong and steady post-release supply of both over the years, but this new approach will see content injected into the game in a more meaningful way. That is, it\u2019ll be scattered throughout the game as if it was always there.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo when all of this new content comes into the game, it\u2019s not just, \u2018Oh, there\u2019s just a bunch of cars and we don\u2019t know what to do with \u2019em; have fun with them,\u2019 [which is] kind of how we\u2019ve released them in the past,\u201d Forza Motorsport Creative Director Chris Esaki concedes. \u201cLike, new cars are cool; go into free play, go into multiplayer, have fun with them, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

We have the opportunity now, with this more agile technology foundation that we have, to put a car into the game or put a track into the game and quickly put that across every surface area in the experience.<\/section>\n

\u201cWe have the opportunity now, with this more agile technology foundation that we have, to put a car into the game or put a track into the game and quickly put that across every surface area in the experience. So a car comes into the game and now it\u2019s actually where it would be appropriate. It\u2019s in a new career mode event that wasn\u2019t there before, on day one. Or a whole new event that didn\u2019t exist before at all. So the same thing with tracks, and it just starts to shift and evolve this content so it always feels fresh every time there\u2019s new content in the game. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019ve played it on day one, it\u2019s going to be different 30 days later, or 60 days later. A year from now it probably looks nothing like day one content. And so it just has this feeling of freshness all across the surface area of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

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As Esaki points out, previous Forza Motorsports games didn\u2019t change in this way as new content arrived; in fact, according to Esaki, in the previous era of Motorsport there would have been no real technical way that it could have been achieved other than to \u201csuper brute force it.\u201d Simply put, the games just weren\u2019t set up to accommodate such changes.<\/p>\n

But the next Forza Motorsport is.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn November, with our first big update, Yas Marina is going to be coming into the game,\u201d reveals Greenawalt. \u201cIt\u2019s going to come in just as Chris described. Free, and it\u2019s going to come into career seamlessly; if you started playing the day after it came in, you\u2019d never even know it was never there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe game is just going to shift over time very naturally. It\u2019ll come into multiplayer, single player \u2013 all over the place \u2013 and then we\u2019re going to add more tracks over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

In November, with our first big update, Yas Marina is going to be coming into the game.<\/section>\n

The team confirms another unrevealed track is due in December, and reiterated that the Nurburgring Nordschleife is still coming into the game in \u201cspring\u201d, but \u201cthat\u2019s just the tip of the iceberg.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe certainly don\u2019t want to split the community up, especially multiplayer,\u201d says Esaki. \u201cSo all of the tracks right now for the foreseeable future, they\u2019re all coming to the game for free. So that\u2019s going to be enjoyed by everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

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There\u2019s another huge reason for Forza Motorsport\u2019s platform-first approach, and that\u2019s player investment. <\/p>\n

\u201cI look at some other experiences that are out there, and people have so much invested in an experience,\u201d says Esaki. \u201cIt\u2019s not just hundreds of hours, it\u2019s thousands of hours that they\u2019re playing League of Legends, or World of Warcraft, or some other experience that they\u2019ve just spent their lives in. And that\u2019s how players have played Forza forever. They\u2019ve invested thousands of hours in the game, but it\u2019s been over all the different generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how players have played Forza forever. They\u2019ve invested thousands of hours in the game, but it\u2019s been over all the different generations.<\/section>\n

Esaki believes that knowing the focus is not just going to shift over to another bespoke Forza Motorsport game in a few years is good for players.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat all of that investment will stay with you is a powerful feeling,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s just this feeling that this is the place that I\u2019ve invested time in, and I feel really good about it and it values that time that I\u2019ve spent in it and it grows with me. So I think that\u2019s a very different feeling for this Motorsport.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Greenawalt, the core element that makes Forza Motorsport the right experience to evolve into a platform is the nature of how skill and competition are at the heart of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce you\u2019ve developed a skill gap, you don\u2019t actually want to trade it in,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd that\u2019s why you look at games like Dota, League of Legends, Counterstrike; these are the games that go more towards being a platform. Again, I\u2019m not talking about a service; I\u2019m really talking about being more of a platform, and it comes out of that skill.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what pushed us down this route. It wasn\u2019t, \u2018Hey, we want to build a platform and therefore let\u2019s make it skill-based.\u2019 It was, \u2018No, Motorsport in its heart is skill and competition; we should make that a platform.\u201d<\/p>\n