When Forza Motorsport 4 released last fall to a cheery reception (read our review), it burnt the rubber off of a two year wait from it’s predecessor, Forza Motorsport 3. Doubtless, the bi-annual development cycle gave Turn 10 Studios the proper amount of time to tune up the game engine and gave fans of Microsoft’s best-selling racing series time to enjoy the heap of vehicular content present on the disc.
That format is still in place for now – Turn 10 doesn’t plan to release Forza Motorsport 5 until 2013 – but it won’t be stopping a spinoff entitled Forza Horizon from releasing later this fall. The announcement came from Turn 10’s Dan Greenawalt , who revealed at the Xbox Spring Showcase that Forza Horizon will be principally developed by Playground Games and will strive to be a “fast-paced, pick-up-and-play racing game.”
No specific details on the game were imparted, but Greenawalt explained why Turn 10 pegged Playground Games – a UK studio formed in 2009 by ex-Codemasters executives Trevor Williams and Nick Wheelwright – for the job:
A teaser trailer for Forza Horizon was also released at the event. It doesn’t show off any new gameplay or features, but the music concert vibe, brief dirt racing snippet, and obligatory girl-in-bikini shot likely indicate a departure from Forza’s sim-racing ethos:
“Those guys stepped away from Codemasters studio and started their own studio about two years ago. "
“At that same time we were looking for a partner to push our vision - gamers as car lovers and car lovers as gamers. We wanted them to embrace this vision but also come up with their own way of executing their own thoughts, so we could expand the house - not just duplicate it.”
Source: CVG
