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Forza Motorsport is set to be Turn 10 Studios’ latest racing game – acting as the serious, track-based counterpoint to the off-road, over-the-top shenanigans of Forza Horizon 5. There have been seven previous instalments in the ‘Motorsport’ series since the original game appeared on the first Xbox back in 2005, so Forza Motorsport 2023 is essentially Forza Motorsport 8 in all but name, as Turn 10 has instead opted for a reboot of sorts.
First announced during Microsoft’s Xbox Games Showcase in 2020, Forza Motorsport was shown in greater detail during the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase on July 14, 2022, with a further Forza Monthly info drop coming shortly after on June 16, 2022. We’ve mopped up the info from the garage floor after each event and squeezed it out onto this very page. So keep on reading to find everything we know so far about the Forza Motorsport reboot so far.
Forza Motorsport release date
The Forza Motorsport release date is currently set for ‘Spring 2023’. We also know it will be available on Game Pass from day one on Xbox Series X and on PC (as well as getting a separate Steam release), though an Xbox One version has not been confirmed as yet. What has been confirmed, however, is a Cloud Gaming version so you can play the game without actually owning expensive hardware, using a broadband internet connection to supply the game to your system should your internet have the bandwidth to handle it. Read more about that in our What is Xbox Cloud Gaming breakdown.
Forza Motorsport gameplay
Forza Motorsport gameplay is going to be a big update on what came before. While the game is set to be another simulation-leaning, serious racing experience like its predecessors, this 2023 release has an even more detailed simulation engine. Each tyre’s physics will be sampled at six points instead of one, and with eight times the number of samples per second, making for a 48x improvement in the fidelity of the physics calculations per tyre over Forza Motorsport 7. New gameplay additions include selectable tyre compounds, tyre and fuel management, and ‘car-building’ which suggests deeply customisable mechanical modding.
Multiplayer will receive an overhaul too, now with full free-practice sessions and qualifying available along with fuel strategy options for those who want a deeper experience, with real calendar-based race times, similar to Sony’s Gran Turismo 7. There has also been official mention of ‘all-new, different modes of game’, though these are under wraps at present.
Forza Motorsport confirmed tracks
Every Forza Motorsport track will be built afresh ‘for the new generation’. Long-time fan favourite Maple Valley Raceway was shown during the showcase, now with luscious detail in the surrounding countryside that you might not even notice during normal gameplay. But this world-building is one of the new game’s big steps forward, with new procedural generation techniques for populating the trackside scenery, and full dynamic time of day effects. These will be available for every single track in the game, and fully adjustable in terms of how fast time passes.
Accurate sun position, track temperatures and ambient temperatures will affect your grip, as well as new dynamic ‘rubbering in’ of the racing line, and of course weather. Other series favourite tracks include freshly laser-scanned WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and Circuit de Spa Francorchamps, but two new circuits were shown too – South Africa’s Kyalami (a former F1 circuit) and the fictional, high-speed GP style course, Circuit Hakone, set in Japan near Mount Fuji. Further all-new tracks will be announced closer to launch.
Forza Motorsport cars
An official list will be announced at a later date, though we know of 37 Forza Motorsport cars thus far. The main star of the showcase was the BMW M8 GTE, adorned with ‘Mission-8’ livery. New cars spotted so far include the Nissan 370Z Nismo, the Audi RS E-Tron GT, and Brabham’s BT62 hypercar. Other returning cars include the 2019 McLaren Senna GTR, the 2020 Lamborghini Huracan EVO, and the gorgeous 1966 McLaren M2B. Ferrari, Mercedes, Audi, Aston Martin, Chevrolet, and Porsche are standouts among the other marques shown so far, and we were also treated to a close-up of the legendary 1991 Le Mans-winning Mazda 787B. It has been confirmed that the focus will be on modern cars and motorsport, and that selection shown so far should give you a good indication of what to expect from the game.
Forza Motorsport damage modelling explained
One area that was shown off in detail is the revised Forza Motorsport damage system. Naturally, in a game full of licensed cars, you’re not going to see Burnout or Wreckfest levels of automotive destruction. But car bodywork clearly dents to a modest degree and scratches up during collisions, particularly around the edges of metal elements, including abrasions on the spokes of alloy wheels. However, when presented with an opportunity to talk about how damage and dirt affects the car in more ways than aesthetics, the game’s Creative Director, Chris Esaki, dodged the question and talked about how ‘the story of the car’ is told through its scars, so there probably won’t be mechanical damage in Forza Motorsport.
Forza Motorsport ray tracing
Turn 10’s GM Dan Greenawalt confirmed that ray-tracing will be applied to all scenes of Forza Motorsport, including real-time, on-track gameplay. That’s an impressive feat given Gran Turismo 7 on PS5 only lets you use it in replays and showroom scenes, and even then at a reduced frame-rate. With Forza Motorsport ray tracing, you can see cars reflected in other cars’ bodywork, themselves exhibiting spot highlights from the twice-reflected sun. There will even be globally-illuminated ray-traced lighting available for non-gameplay scenes, which should be spectacular.
Indeed, everything about the game is looking spectacular. To get you in the mood, why not read the review of the 5 star-scoring Forza Motorsport 7? If that game was gorgeous on a launch model Xbox One, imagine what Forza Motorsport will be like…
