Forza Motorsport will be on Xbox One - but there's a catch

With Microsoft and Turn 10 promising a “generational leap” in fidelity and realism, it’s been assumed that Forza Motorsport will only launch on Xbox Series X|S and PC to fully take advantage of current-gen hardware and skip Xbox One.

Now, Microsoft has clarified if Xbox One owners can play the upcoming Forza Motorsport reboot.

Will Forza Motorsport be on Xbox One?

In an online FAQ, Microsoft confirmed Forza Motorsport will be playable on older Xbox One hardware. This is great news for Xbox One owners who haven’t made the jump to Xbox Series X|S yet.

There is a catch, however – Xbox One players can only stream it through the Xbox Cloud Gaming beta included in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. This means Forza Motorsport won’t run natively on Xbox One. 

No native Xbox One release

“Forza Motorsport has been built from the ground up to leverage the full power and performance of Xbox Series X|S consoles and deliver our most beautiful, technically advanced game yet,” the FAQ reads.”

While there will not be a native Xbox One version of the game, Xbox One players can stream Forza Motorsport through Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta) included in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.”

Microsoft hasn’t confirmed if there will be any downgrades, but intensive effects like real-time ray-tracing will surely be disabled when streaming the game on Xbox One. The game will also likely stream at a lower resolution and frame rate.

It’s hardly surprising that Forza Motorsport won’t run natively on Xbox One. Turn 10 is targeting 4K and 60fps on Xbox Series X and 1080p and 60 fps on the Series S.

The original Xbox One hardware is nearly ten years old and would struggle to run Forza Motorsport without significant compromises.

We’ve also already started to see new racing game releases skip last-generation consoles, with Need for Speed Unbound only available on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles.

At least Xbox One owners who haven’t upgraded to Series X|S won’t miss out on the new Forza Motorsport title – but you’ll need a Game Pass Ultimate subscription.

Release date

Sadly, Forza Motorsport still doesn’t have a firm release date. While the Microsoft racer was set for a Spring 2023 release, the game is seemingly delayed as Microsoft says it will now launch at some point in 2023.