Key Highlights
- Microsoft confirms ongoing updates for Forza Motorsport and Horizon 5 despite massive layoffs and studio shake-ups
- Rumors of Motorsport’s end intensify after reports that Turn 10’s Motorsport division has been shut down
- Horizon 5 remains a commercial hit, surpassing 45 million players
The tech giant, Microsoft, has confirmed that Forza Motorsport and Forza Horizon 5 will continue to receive updates, even as the company reels from major layoffs and swirling rumors about the future of its racing franchise.
Layoffs Cast Doubt on Forza Motorsport’s Future
The official announcement comes after more than 9,000 Microsoft employees lost their jobs last month, including heavy cuts in the Xbox gaming division.
The message to fans was posted on the official Forza community site, thanking players for their ongoing support. Microsoft said that Turn 10 Studios and Playground Games, the developers behind Motorsport and Horizon, are still working on new content for the current games.
A link to upcoming Motorsport content was shared, but there was no mention of future Horizon entries. This dilemma left many questions unanswered.
This silence and dilemma have sparked a guessing game in the community. Popular racing YouTuber Steve Alvarez Brown, known as SuperGT, called the statement “zero clarity” on whether Motorsport has a future beyond its latest release.
The rumors began in July when Fred Russell, a former Turn 10 content coordinator, wrote on Facebook that the studio had “shuttered the Forza Motorsport space and the team is no more.”
He later clarified that Horizon would continue and that Turn 10 would focus on supporting it. Other former employees, including long-time series figure John Schommer, confirmed they were leaving. Bloomberg later reported that almost half of Turn 10’s staff had been laid off.
The layoffs were not limited to Forza. Rare’s Everwild, The Initiative’s reboot of Perfect Dark, and an unannounced ZeniMax MMORPG were all canceled. Around 200 staff from Candy Crush maker King also lost their jobs, with reports that some were replaced by rapidly growing AI tools, which they had been helping to build.
Microsoft described these cuts as “necessary to position the company and teams for success in a dynamic marketplace.”
Forza’s history stretches back to 2005, when Motorsport launched on the original Xbox as Microsoft’s answer to Sony’s Gran Turismo. It spawned seven sequels and, eventually, the open-world Horizon spin-off series.
Over time, Horizon grew into a bigger commercial hit, with Playground Games at the helm. The studio is now also developing the next Fable RPG, scheduled for 2026 after delays.
Forza Horizon 5, released in 2011, remains a huge success. It has drawn more than 45.5 million players across Xbox consoles and over 6.5 million sales on Steam. Its April 2025 launch on PlayStation 5 gave it another surge, with over 3 million copies sold on Sony’s console so far this year.
On the flip side, Motorsport continues to have a loyal base among simulation racing fans but has not matched Horizon’s mass appeal.
One Reddit user said, “They kept saying “built from the ground up” when half (or more) of the content is rehashed from previous games and when it was missing features. That and it was so buggy and utterly broken. It’s the same game as before with even less polish and sometimes worse graphics. Imagine paying 100€ for the best edition of a brand new racing game to get Xbox 360 car models that are less detailed than they were on the 360 lmao.’
For now, Microsoft is assuring fans that the current games are not being abandoned. Updates will keep rolling out for both Motorsport and Horizon 5.
But without a firm commitment to a new Motorsport title and with Turn 10 reportedly gutted, the long-term road ahead for the series remains murky. Fans are left waiting for the next green light, not knowing if it will ever come.
An earlier report suggests that the CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, has reaffirmed the company’s strong commitment to gaming.
