Announced last year during the Tokyo Games Show, we knew Forza Horizon 6 was heading to Japan, but not much else. Today, during the Xbox Developer Direct, we now know a lot more about what to expect as players race their way across the home of the rising sun, including just how much urban driving through Tokyo will factor into the experience.
In Forza Horizon 6, players will not take the role of an established racer joining the titular Forza Horizon festival as we have seen in past iterations of the series. Instead of starting as a tourist who joins the festival. This will lead to leveling your driver through wrist bands that showcase your rank, culminating in signature events that the series has become known for, to move to the next rank, as well as the new Horizon Rush events.
Japan itself is beautifully rendered with a range of locations to explore, from winding mountain paths, riversides, and of course, Tokyo. All of this exploration is made better with a new drive assist that allows the car to automatically follow the path to the next event, allowing players to kick back and enjoy the view. Tokyo, for its part, is the biggest urban environment created for the series thus far, 5x so to be precise.
Following up on a core feature of Forza Horizon 4, we also got to see just how dramatic the detail shifts between seasons will be. This includes seeing cherry blossoms in bloom and covering roads in the spring, to massive snow walls surrounding roads in the winter. This is, besides just standard touches like the foggy typography common for mountain passes in Japan.
There will be 550 cars available at the launch of the title, ranging from classic cars to more powerful modern cars. The game also boasts a more refined customization system to give these vehicles the personality you want, as well as fully customizable garages where you can do this work. Forza Horizon 6‘s cover car will be a GR GT, a Toyota prototype car set to debut in 2027. Near the end of the deep dive, a pair of big metal feet appear, suggesting a Gundam or Gundam’s will appear in some capacity in the game, though if they are a showcase moment or environment feature remains to be seen.
Forza Horizon 6 will be racing onto Xbox Series, PC, and Xbox Game Pass on May 19, with a PlayStation 5 version releasing sometime later in 2026.
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