Since the first Forza Horizon launched in 2012, Microsoft’s racing franchise has followed the same release schedule, with the Horizon and Motorsport lines of the series releasing new instalments every alternate year. If a new report is to be believed though, that tradition might be broken soon, with the next Horizon game seemingly in line to launch before the next Motorsport title.
Speaking during the Xbox Empire podcast, GamesBeat’s Jeff Grubb said that Forza Horizon 5 might release in 2021, before the next Forza Motorsport title (which, in fact, has already been announced). Grubb suggested that development on the game has been proceeding well, and that Playground Games are in a position where they’re ready to release their game before Turn 10 Studios. He also mentioned that he “thinks” he knows where the game will be set, but would rather wait for Playground to make that announcement instead of leaking it himself.
By 2021, Forza Horizon 4 will be three years old, so it isn’t hard to imagine its sequel being ready for launch by then (especially since previous Horizon games have all had two-year development cycles). 2019 and 2020 both saw the Forza franchise releasing no new games, which in itself is highly unusual for a series that had been an annual one from 2011 up until 2018- so another break in that release schedule wouldn’t be the most surprising thing in the world.
Playground Games have been expanding significantly over the last couple of years, with sizeable team within the studio focused on developing the next Fable game. It remains to be seen whether the Horizon studio will indeed have another game ready to go by next year. For now, we have to file this away as a rumour, but stay tuned, and we’ll keep you updated as we come across more details.