Forza Horizon 6 marks the end of an era for Xbox, but could result in the best entry yet
2026 preview: No longer a console exclusive, the Forza Horizon series has the potential to move up a gear
It could be argued that it was the release of Forza Horizon on PlayStation, and not the news that Halo is coming to it, that heralded the real end of the console war.
Halo’s brand power has been on the wane for some time now, especially given the lukewarm reception to Halo Infinite when it was released four years ago. Every time a Forza Horizon game is released, however, it’s always up there as a legitimate Game of the Year contender.
All five entries in the series to date have enjoyed Metacritic scores of 85 or more, with the last three games scoring in the 90s, making it one of the strongest strings in Xbox’s bow during its more troublesome periods.
Indeed, at a time when Xbox was criticised for the output of its games – both in terms of quality and quantity, something considered less of an issue now – Forza Horizon has been the series that continually provided the exception to the rule. It’s Playground Games, not Halo Studios, that has been doing most of the heavy lifting to keep Xbox’s reputation aloft.
Then in 2025, the unthinkable happened (one of many unthinkables, actually) as Forza Horizon 5 was released on PS5, and that final thing Xbox players could wave in the faces of their PlayStation-owning friends – the fact they had an outstanding open-world driving game and PS5 didn’t – was promptly taken away.
Now, with Forza Horizon 6 set to release next year as a timed Xbox exclusive, with a PS5 version already confirmed to arrive at a later date, there can be absolutely no doubt that the landscape has changed, and I don’t just mean the series’ move from Mexico to Japan.
Of course, it changes nothing from an Xbox console owner’s point of view. Forza Horizon 6 is still set to be released on Xbox Series X/S next year, and it will still almost certainly be one of the best racing games of the entire generation, like 3, 4, and 5 were before it, not least because it finally marks the series’ arrival in one of the most often-requested regions.
“It’s Playground Games, not Halo Studios, that has been doing most of the heavy lifting to keep Xbox’s reputation aloft.”
Having already taken players to Colorado, France, Italy, Australia, the UK and Mexico, Forza Horizon will finally travel to Asia for the first time, allowing players to take in the sights and sounds of picturesque Japan.
As with previous Horizon games, it won’t be a one-for-one replica of the country (like you’d see in Microsoft Flight Simulator), but will almost certainly instead offer a sort of ‘best of’ version of Japan, with notable landmarks shuffled around and placed closer together.
Much like Forza Horizon 4 let you drive from Edinburgh Castle to the Lake District in around five minutes, Playground Games has confirmed that its new Japan map will include such sights as Tokyo’s city streets and Mount Fuji, even though in real life it would take two hours to drive there (an hour if your car is particularly fast which, let’s face it, it should be).
What’s particularly exciting is that every Forza Horizon game has a brilliant way of getting the player enthusiastic about both the region and the cars native to it, in a way that doesn’t jam it down their throat like Gran Turismo’s infamous cafés, where someone walks up to you and delivers a monologue on the history of Alfa Romeo with all the passion of a Wikipedia entry.
In Forza Horizon, the enthusiasm is integrated into the game in a more natural way, through missions and other methods, and is more infectious as a result. As someone who isn’t really much of a petrolhead, I immediately forgot everything I was told in Gran Turismo 7. However, four years on from Forza Horizon 5, I still know the VW Beetle is loved in Mexico, where it’s affectionately known as the Vocho.
Ultimately, while there will doubtless be some poor souls out there upset that Xbox’s most consistently critically acclaimed series will also be found sitting in PlayStation’s garage for the foreseeable future, the reality is that a larger player base means a stronger future for Forza, and for a franchise frequently built around the idea of a massive festival celebrating cars, the more people who join in the party the better.
