75%
Probable
The most significant announcement made at Tokyo Game Show 2025 was arguably Forza Horizon 6. The massively successful open world racing franchise is returning next year to PC and Xbox consoles, featuring the long-coveted Japan setting.
When is it launching, though? Looking back at previous franchise entries, every Forza Horizon game has been released so far between September and November. However, according to insider Nate the Hate, that trend might change with Forza Horizon 6, because UK developer Playground Games is targeting a launch at some point in the first half of 2026.
The Fall launch window has worked wonders so far for the franchise. The most recent game, Forza Horizon 5, reached over 40 million players as of July 2024 and has since grown further, thanks to its launch on the PlayStation 5 console, where the title even outsold Sony's own first-party games for a while.
However, 2026 is definitely a peculiar situation given that the release of the proverbial elephant in the room, Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto VI, has been postponed from May 26, 2026 to November 19, 2026. Quite literally every triple-A game developer (and most indie ones, too) will want to distance their games as much as possible from that all-consuming void. Sure, Forza Horizon 6 belongs to a different enough genre, but why risk it? Of course, that all hinges on the game being ready to launch by then.
If the game is released in the first half of 2026, it will have been four and a half years since FH5, by far the longest gap between releases in the franchise. Playground Games may actually launch two games next year, given that their other big gamble, Fable, was delayed from 2025 to a generic 2026 window. Fable might be released toward the end of next year (provided there isn't another delay into 2027).
The developers have yet to reveal many details about Forza Horizon 6, although we already know the following:
- The map is designed around three key regions: the dense city of Tokyo, coastal areas, and mountain tōge roads. Playground Games is focusing less on raw size and more on density and verticality, especially in Tokyo, utilizing layered, multi-level roads inspired by Forza Horizon 5's Hot Wheels expansion.
- Map design emphasizes tight city streets, multi-story highways, mountain passes, and rural rice-field backroads, providing a diverse range of driving experiences within one map that include typically Japanese car races, such as urban street racing, mountain drifting, and high‑speed coastal runs.
- The campaign progression harkens back to Forza Horizon 1's structure, where players start with slower cars and earn their way up, with faster tiers unlocking as they progress rather than being showered on them from the get-go.
- The car roster in Forza Horizon 6 will be heavily expanded with Japanese flavor, including kei cars and kei vans, which appear both as drivable garage vehicles and AI traffic.
- The open world will 'blow fans away', between the inherent beauty of Japanese environments and the tech improvements made to the engine.
While the game has only been announced for PC and Xbox Series S and X, a PlayStation 5 version is inevitable given the success encountered by its predecessor. The only question is whether it will be released later in 2026 or in 2027, but we'll keep you up to date on those rumors and news as soon as they become available.
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