Forza Horizon 6: Everything We Know So Far

Forza Horizon 5 might not have had the best start to the race, but the open-world racer has recovered strongly to become one of the best open-world titles out there. Despite the turnaround, attention has begun to turn to what could be next for the Horizon Festival.

Occupying Mexico for almost three years, the festival has seen racers and cars from around the world gather to celebrate all things automotive. But where could the Horizon Festival move to next? And when can we expect Forza Horizon 6 to be released?

Here’s everything we know so far about the next Forza Horizon entry following Horizon 5.

Latest news: No sign of Forza Horizon 6 at Xbox Games Showcase

Forza Horizon fans were anxiously waiting for news on the next entry at the 2024 Xbox Games Showcase. Unfortunately, fans were left disappointed as Forza Horizon 6 was not shown at the showcase, with Playground Games showing off its new Fable reboot instead.

As a result, Forza Horizon 6 is not expected to launch in 2024 and will more likely be released in 2025 at the earliest.

A new horizon?

Despite Forza Horizon 5's rough start, Playground Games has worked hard to turn around the open-world racer. Players continue to flock back week after week for new playlists, races, challenges, and cars to complete and unlock.

There’s a good chance Forza Horizon 6 Will continue the trend started in Forza Horizon 4 and carried over to Forza Horizon 5 with you playing as the same character competing in each festival. However, the series could also head in a new direction.

Former Forza Horizon creative director Mike Brown left Playground Games in 2023 to start a new studio called Maverick Games, leaving the door open for the Horizon series to change course from Forza Horizon 6.

Whether it’s bringing back an antagonist as seen in the original Forza Horizon or soft rebooting the series, Forza Horizon 6 can go in a number of exciting directions with a new story mode or feature set.

Carrying over progress from Forza Horizon 4 was beneficial for FH5 players. However, this removed the feeling of progression many were looking for, so adding some grind back to the series would be a good move.

Possible location

So far, the Horizon Festival has traveled to the USA, Europe, Australia, UK, and now Mexico. Rumors of Forza Horizon 6's next location are swirling, but there's one untraveled location that fans are demanding the most: Japan.

Known as the birthplace of the drift scene, Japan is the perfect setting for celebrating car culture. Home of respected car manufacturers Honda, Nissan, and Toyota amongst many others, taking the Horizon Festival to Japan would bring a wide range of gameplay possibilities.

Drifting a Nissan Skyline through a neon-soaked Japanese-inspired city is a petrolhead’s dream, as is racing along the beautiful highways snaking their way around Japan’s mountainous terrain.

We're also yet to see Japan feature in an open-world racing game. Suzuka feature in the F1 series, while Gran Turismo 7 has both Suzuka and the fictional Tokyo Expressway. But beyond that, Japan is underrepresetned in AAA racing titles.

There are many options for where in Japan a Forza Horizon game would be best. Tokyo is the obvious choice, but creating a city of Tokyo’s magnitude would push even current-gen hardware. This means Forza Horizon 5 could be set in a much smaller city or a collection of towns.

If Playground Games skips Japan for Forza Horizon 6, other touted locations include Germany, China, or even a return to the USA. Some fans calling for the series to head to the Motor City of Detroit for some all-American automotive action.

Predicted car list

Forza Horizon 5 launched with just over 530 cars, and we expect a similar number when Forza Horizon 6 releases. At a minimum, FH6 should launch with the same car list as its predecessor, with some extra ones thrown in for good measure from Forza Motorsport.

Setting Forza Horizon 6 in Japan would be a great opportunity to add in as many Japanese drift and race cars as possible to reflect the scene. February 2023 saw the Forza Horizon 5 Japanese Automotive series debut, giving us a taste of what the Land of the Rising Sun has to offer.

Forza Horizon 6 needs to avoid the mistake made with FH5. Forza Horizon 5 launched with many cars from Forza Horizon 4 either missing or locked behind DLC. We're hoping every car from FH5 will be included in the game from launch, with additional cars added in future updates.

In addition, we're also hoping to see as many cars from other Forza Horizon titles as possible. Players were not happy when Forza Horizon 5 lacked cars from other games in the series, so this is a mistake that should not be repeated.

Platforms

As a Microsoft-published game, Forza Horizon 6 will naturally be released on both Xbox Series X|S and PC. As to whether the game will include last-gen consoles, we think it’s about time the series moved on without the Xbox One.

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Releasing the game purely on current-gen hardware would give Playground Games the freedom to add more content. Open-world games are taxing enough on older hardware, and it’s obvious that the Xbox One has held back Forza Horizon 5.

Large, empty areas of the Mexican map left players with little to do when the game first launched, so we're hoping Forza Horizon 6's map will be more expansive.

We also expect Forza Horizon 6 to be available on Game Pass, possibly at lauch if it follows in FH5's footsetps.

Forza Horizon 5 broke records when launching, becoming the biggest release in Game Pass history at the time. There’s no reason why Forza Horizon 6 wouldn’t perform similarly as one of Microsoft’s two flagship racing games.

However, Forza Horizon 6 might not be a Microsoft-exclusive title. Rumors from early 2024 suggested that several Microsoft titles could be coming to Playstation, leading to speculation that Forza Horizon could be one of them.

Although Microsoft later clarified that only four titles would be making the jump to Sony’s consoles, Forza Horizon could still become multiplatform in the future.

Sony lacks a choice of open-world racing games, with only The Crew Motorfest currently scratching that itch, so releasing Forza Horizon on PlayStation for the first time would be a good business move from Microsoft.

If Forza Horizon is heading for PlayStation, it would make more sense to release legacy titles on PlayStation first and keep Forza Horizon 6 exclusive to Xbox and PC to maximize Microsoft's console sales.

Release date speculation

Forza Horizon 6 was expected to be released in 2024. However, the next entry wasn't shown at the Xbox Games Showcase, so we'll have to wait a little longer to race in the new Horizon Festival.

Forza Motorsport was originally set to start the race in 2022, but was pushed back to Spring 2023 and eventually launhed in October 2023. It seems the delays to Forza Motorsport have also affected the Forza Horizon series, with no word on the next installment despite FH5 being nearly three years old.

The fact that Forza Horizon 5 is still heavily supported also points to Forza Horizon 6 not arriving anytime soon. FH5 still receives weekly seasonal updates, with new playlists arriving monthly to add new cars and freshen up the races.

With Forza Horizon 4 releasing in September 2018 and Forza Horizon 5 launching in November 2021, we were anticipating an autumn 2024 release for Forza Horizon 6. However, after a new entry wasn't shown at the Xbox Games Showcase, we're expecting Forza Horizon 6 to launch in 2025 at the earliest, possibly towards the end of next year.

What are your predictions for Forza Horizon 6? Let us know in the comments below!

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