Forza Horizon, a series of racing games developed by Playground Games and published by Microsoft Studios, is expected to release its sixth addition on May 19, 2026. The Horizon games follow an open world style map with races to participate in scattered around. This formula of setting may work well for “people who kind of like just driving around seeing the scenery and stuff like that might find it fun,” Junior Ragavan Kalyranaraaman said.
Along with normal races the series includes “showcase events” which sets the player to race against vehicles other than cars such as: several dirtbikes, a train, a plane, and hovercraft. In addition to races, “they also have car meets back and that’s a feature that’s been missing since Forza Horizon 3 and now you can apparently buy cars from the car meets too,” said Junior Srivats Iyer.
The locations of the games in order include: Colorado, France, Italy, Australia, Britain, and Mexico. Forza Horizon 6 will be set in Japan. “Tokyo… that’s what I’m most excited about,” Junior Landon Erb said. Location is a big part of the Horizon games because it has formed many of the aspects that players love. For example, according to one player describing their favorite Horizon game, “Forza Horizon 2, I think the map on that is really good because it goes between Italy and France.” Iyer said. With the series having grown, so has the scale; Tokyo City, the main urban area in the game, was given its own development team. In the past, Horizon games have had tie-ins with large brands such as Lego, Hot Wheels, Hoonigan, Formula Drift, Top Gear, CD Projekt RED, and James Bond. The game’s map, being set near Tokyo, includes famous landmarks such as, “a section on the mountain road that is referencing the real life road of Mount Haruna… the same location used in the anime Initial D…Initial D is like really important to car culture as a whole” Iyer said.
This sixth addition to the series will also be the first to launch on two brands of consoles consecutively, being the Playstation 5 and the Xbox Series consoles. Additionally, Forza Horizon 6 will be released on Windows via the Xbox app and Steam. The second Horizon game, released on two consoles as well although they were of the same brand being the Xbox 360 along with the “on the Xbox One console, so that was the seventh generation,” Iyer said. Although being a racing game, Horizon is not intended to fully simulate driving. Some Horizon games support accessories such as pedal and steering wheel sets.
One thing that may take away from the realism of the series for some players is aspects such as “If the roads are too wide… Because that limits the sense of speed and that’s like a big thing in racing games where like you want the game to feel very fast,” Iyer said.
