The Forza Horizon games have always brought a more casual, gamified racing experience to the table. Since Forza Horizon 5 failed to impress its audience, many fans now eagerly await the announcement of the Forza Horizon 6 release date. There are already rumours flying around about the possible location for the next game, as well as keen-eyed Redditors noticing recent job postings listed by the studio.
It seems like the current Forza Horizon game dropped the ball in a couple of different areas. The map felt empty and not very atmospheric, and the dialogue between characters felt forced and unnatural. While the next DLC for Forza Horizon 5 is set to be released this year, that hasn’t stopped people from speculating on what kind of features they’d love to see in Forza Horizon 6.
For more news on the Forza Horizon games, check out our article on the Hot Wheels DLC for Forza Horizon 5. We also have a list of the best racing games for you to play on Android, as well as how to sell your cars in Forza Horizon 5.
Forza Horizon 6 News
There is yet to be any news announced about a Forza Horizon 6 release date. Although, it seems like the development of the game was leaked when Reddit users discovered a job listing posted by Inner Sloth. They were advertising for a level designer, which has many fans excited about the potential of the next game.
What we’d love to see in Forza Horizon 6
Career mode
The last few Forza Horizon games have been desperately lacking in career modes. When you start the game, you're immediately given a good car that you can use to compete in races with. While this is great if you’re looking for a really casual way to play the games, it prevents there from being any development in your character. Everyone loves an underdog, but there’s no real sense of achievement if there’s nothing for you to overcome.
Fans want this to be completely overhauled, and for a detailed career mode to be reintroduced in Forza Horizon 6. This would completely restructure how the game is played. The focus would be on earning money and using your skill to overcome difficult races, rather than just exploring the world and taking part in events. Once you’ve earned enough money, there would be better and faster cars available to you that you could use to solidify your reputation as an up-and-coming driver.
A fresh start in Japan
One of the biggest rumours surrounding the development of this game at the moment is its potential location. A lot of fans are hoping to see the game take place in Japan, a country famous for its JDM car and street racing scene. This would be a really interesting place to host a Forza Horizon Festival, especially if some of the more underground themes of street racing are integrated into the story.
This kind of setting would also make for a great map. While a lot of the Forza Horizon maps have been almost exclusively rural, it wouldn’t hurt for there to be at least a little bit of urban driving introduced in the next game. That being said, the rural countryside of Japan would serve as a breathtaking backdrop to races, and would be a great place to explore the little secrets that the studio loves to put in these games.
A more balanced economy
It would be fair to say that the current economy of the Forza Horizon games is a little skewed, to say the least. It’s not uncommon to find cars with an asking price of well over $100 million at car shows in the game, but then also find them for 120 points in the shop. There needs to be coherent pricing in the next game, that scales the price of the cars against the player's progression.
The addition of more normal cars to the game would also add a lot of fun. Fans of the series will no doubt remember the first time they bought the Peel P50 and took it for a drive. It was a really fun relief from driving all of the supercars, and these kinds of moments are what the Horizon games are all about. It’s not uncommon to find car groups in racing games that include some of the worst cars ever made, but these make for some of the best online races. Sure, speeding in the Koenigsegg Jesko can be fun for a while, but you haven’t lived unless you’ve pushed someone off the road using a Ford Fiesta.
More customisation options
One of the most important things in the Forza games is making the car really feel like it’s yours. This can be done in a few different ways, from changing the paint colour to giving it a custom livery. In fact, there’s a whole community built around designing liveries in the Forza games that only grows with each new release.
However, many have found these options to be a little lacking. It might be a little greedy to ask for full customisation for every car in the game, but this could be implemented in a few ways. One of them is the ability to customise the inside of the car. Of course, the cockpit will be where you spend all of your time in the game, even if you end up using the third-person camera angle. It would help to add a lot of personality to the cars if you could change the colours of the seats and hang something off your rear-view mirror.
Aged up for the adult audience
According to a Reddit poll, most Forza Horizon players are between the ages of 19 and 30. This is important because the Horizon games have been following a trend in the past few years to make the games as child-friendly as possible. The festivals are overloaded with oversaturated colours, all of the characters are super friendly and the dialogue is so cheesy that even Cathedral City would like a word.
It would be refreshing to see Forza Horizon take its audience a little more seriously. People play these games for a casual driving experience, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t have some less-friendly aspects too. Something as simple as introducing some rivals that you have to prove yourself against can go a long way. If you pair this with more realistic dialogue and interactions, then you have a Forza Horizon 6 experience worth talking about.