Earlier this year, when Turn 10 Studios lost over 70 members of its development team as part of the latest round of layoffs mandated by Microsoft, a former employee claimed that Turn 10 had effectively been turned into a Forza Horizon support studio. This chain of events had fans fearful about the future of the racing simulation franchise.
Now, at last, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer commented on this as part of a Tokyo Game Show 2025 interview with Famitsu. The Japanese magazine asked him whether the Halo and Forza Motorsport franchises were done for. Spencer vehemently denied that for Halo (which was quickly confirmed when the long-rumored Halo: CE remake was announced this weekend), but had a more elaborate response with regards to the racing IP, hinting that it is currently 'resting' - albeit still not over.
No! Halo Studios is planning for the future and taking on new challenges. We're committed to Unreal Engine 5 and new technologies. We're committed to giving them the time they need to invest in the Halo franchise and create the next great game in the Halo series.
Regarding Forza Motorsport, we sometimes need to shift our focus to games that are released sooner. We understand the reaction many people had when we scaled back Turn10 Studios. We have a large number of games we want to support carefully, and sometimes we give development teams a little more time to avoid putting them under strain. Our current structure allows us this flexibility.
Xbox Game Studios has over 20 studios, and we have many games in development, each with different support needs. We have both short-term and mid- to long-term perspectives. We want our games to be successful. Xbox Game Studios is currently developing many titles, so please look forward to them in the future.
The thing is, Microsoft already tried giving Turn 10 Studios a lot more time with the next chapter in the racing series. Whereas the first seven Forza Motorsport games were released every two years without fail between 2005 and 2017, the last one, a reboot launched in 2023, took six years to make and was still ultimately underwhelming according to most long-time fans. It also doesn't help that its sister franchise, the open world arcade racing game Forza Horizon, is massively more popular and will return next year with the long-awaited Japan setting.
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