Hello fellow drivers, photographers and Forza Enthusiasts, I’m here to share a thought that is important to me and may have influenced many of you.
It all started with the dream of having an open-world Forza games, as they have the best track and car “library”, graphics and physics of any console games ever. Then with Forza 3 and its tracks Rally di Positano we felt like a breach into the project of a wider scope driving/racing game.
Long story short : After Forza 4 and it’s advanced visuals came Forza Horizon which was very detailed and feature-rich.
Forza Horizon releases are a big event. There is always so much hype around it. And for that reason and the fact that the game emphasizes on a summer festival and promotes music in such a way, I always wondered why the launch date of the game is set in Fall ?¨
First, The game concentrates on summer/late spring settings. So the first statement is that it seems logical and natural to enhance the way the customers react to a Horizon release to have the launch date in Summer. No matter the E3, or just after.
Psychologically speaking, people would be more enticed to get enjoyed about a game they’re going to play which reflects the ambiance surrounding them. The start of the summer, looking at cars going by the road :
“Summer drives you to Horizon”
So, we are aware Microsoft planned a 1 year cycle swapping from Horizon to Motorsport in a two-year row. This limited life span inhibits the rate of involvement a player can put into all games the market offers (and most are pointless…) and the time developers can spend enhancing an interactive art form( a game) and also innovate in new technologies and features.
Breakthroughs in IT sciences have slowed down a bit in Video Games for a few years now, due to over-casual and cash-cowing the public. That’s another debate.
The point comes down to a reconsideration of the release date. To suit an Autumn release for Forza Motorsport and early summer release for Forza Horizon, the development could efficiently be restructured in a 1,5 years row for allowing not time but more expanded consumer and developer implication.
Second, what makes Forza Horizon so great is the music. Never since NFS1 (1994/EA), Dirt 2 (2009/Codemasters), has any game put so much efforts in the love of cars and music. Regarding ambiance, depicting details with passion of a festival and the cars themselves.
The biggest motto of Horizon has always been about Freedom, Cars, Music and Style.
I remember that when I first played Horizon back then, I was so thrilled I knew that TDU, NFS and later The Crew could not portray all the hype and festivity in such open air events. The crowds, the fireworks, the balloons, the music scenes, the road trips, the festival entrances, showrooms and so on.
Honestly, the soundtrack of every Forza Horizon has been well curated. And extended over the years. It’s cracking down the house. I know I discovered a lot of songs thanks to it. And that’s the game being released in September, October when everybody’s mood start to fall again just like the rain does during these months. Most of the song were a bit dated at the game’s released, so that can be done better. I remember how excited I got when I heard some songs in the radio.
Hence if the game would be released just at the beginning of the summer it would stay in the hype flow by including just produced songs that are going to be aired through the summer as top-chart hits. And that’s a big quality. We all know how much music is important to our lives and how tight people have a relationship with it. I know now we could stream songs from OneDrive, but then the purpose of having a specific soundtrack that suits the driving setting perfectly, moreover enabling one to discover songs, will be lost if nobody takes charge of that.
That was my report about Horizon’s impact and future