Forza Motorsport fans have been waiting a long time for the next game in Turn 10’s racing simulation franchise. The previous installment, Forza Motorsport 7, was released nearly six years ago, whereas the usual wait between new Forza games used to be just two years.
According to a new rumor published by Exputer and backed by Rand al’Thor from the Xbox Two podcast, fans can expect the game to finally launch exactly four months from today, on Tuesday, October 10th. This aligns with a rumor shared last month by Xbox insider MrMattyPlays, who also said Turn 10 was targeting a launch that month. October seems to be a favorite for Forza Motorsport launches, anyway, with the seventh, third, and fourth entries also released during that month.
This year, it’s also an incredibly stacked month for game releases. The calendar has just filled up with the following high-profile releases: Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Mirage on October 12th, CI Games’ Lords of the Fallen on October 13th, Remedy’s Alan Wake II on October 17th, Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 on October 20th, THQ Nordic’s Alone in the Dark on October 25th, and SEGA’s Total War: Pharaoh on a TBA date in October. Of course, Forza Motorsport is different from all those games, and it’s also going to be on Game Pass from day one like all first-party games published by Microsoft.
Turn 10 has described their new game as the most technically advanced racing title ever made. A couple of years ago, creative director Chris Esaki explained that the physics improvements from the previous game to the new one were as significant as those between Forza Motorsport 4 and Forza Motorsport 7, pointing to a huge leap in simulation fidelity.
For instance, the new tire collision model has eight points of contact with the track, whereas the previous entry only had a single point of contact. Last year, Esaki expanded on that, revealing that the track’s temperature is affected by the dynamic day/night cycle and weather. Moreover, dynamic rubbering accumulates on tracks, which will slowly become sticky as tire rubber is left on the road.
At launch, Forza Motorsport has been confirmed to offer over 500 vehicles and 800 upgrades. Tracks will take place in 20 different environments (five of which are new) with different layouts.
Cars, the stars of the show, will also look more realistic thanks to a spectrophotometer, which allowed the developers to improve the light response across various colors and gloss levels. Car damage is also far more accurate, down to individual scratches, and the same is true for dirt buildup. On top of that, Forza Motorsport features real-time ray tracing, though Turn 10 didn’t explain if it will only be reflections like in Forza Horizon 5 or something else, too.
Forza Motorsport will be available for PC and Xbox Series S|X. Game Pass Ultimate players will also be able to play through cloud streaming. The release date will be confirmed in an official capacity tomorrow during the Xbox Games Showcase (10 AM Pacific Time).
