Microsoft Reportedly Shut Down Team Working on Forza Motorsport

Microsoft’s latest round of layoffs has reportedly hit Forza Motorsport developer Turn 10 Studios in a pretty big way. Fred Russell, a former Forza Motorsport content coordinator posted on Facebook four days ago (via Gameindustry.biz) that “Turn 10 Studios has shuttered the Forza Motorsport space and the team is no more.”

In a follow-up reply, Russell said that “the studio is open to support the Horizon side… shuttered the Forza Motorsport side only.” With its arcade-style gameplay, the Forza Horizon series is indeed much more popular than the simulation-focused Forza Motorsport series. That’s why Microsoft decided to release Forza Horizon 5 on the PlayStation 5 earlier this Spring.

Forza Motorsport, which was released in October 2023 on Xbox Series X|S and PC, was the 8th game in the series that started on the original Xbox back in 2005. The franchise has been competing with the PlayStation-exclusive Gran Turismo series for many years, but the latest game launched in a buggy state and with a general lack of content compared to previous episodes. While it did earn an 84% score on Metacritic, the last three Forza Horizon games also all scored over 90%.

Turn 10 has yet to announce that development for Forza Motorsport is about to end with the team working on the game going away. Russell described the layoffs at Turn 10 studios “a very sad day for one of the best car racing video games.”

As we previously reported last week, the latest job cuts at Microsoft’s Xbox division also led to the cancellation of three upcoming games and the closure of The Initiative, a new studio working on a Perfect Dark reboot. Everwild, a new game from Sea of Thieves developer Rare has also been canceled alongside a new MMORPG project from Zenimax Online Studios.