30 Facts About The Forza Horizon Series You Need to Know

With the recent release of Forza Horizon 4 and the success it has received. It is the perfect time to take a look of the history of the Forza Horizon series and explore 30 interesting facts you may not have known.

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Going straight into these facts up first is that:

1. Forza Horizon was released in October of 2012 and developed by Playground Games. It is a contrast and spin-off to its brother series of Forza Motorsport.

2.  Playground Games was an up-and-coming game developer that was a risky endeavor to that of Turn 10 Studios, the developers of the Forza Motorsport series. However, the head of Dan Greenawalt was avid for this new expanse of developers stating, “Of course it’s a risk, […] but some of the best racing games in the last twenty years have come out of the UK racing game development studios”.

3. The staff at Playground Games provide a colorful resume of skill boasting employees working on such titles as the Driver series, The well-acclaimed Project Gotham Racing, the high-speed racing of Burnout and the award-winning Race Driver: Grid.

4. The environmental research was made on around 30 different real-world locations with the first setting decided as Colorado, USA. It went in-depth with the team exploring the state to take over 50,000 still images and film environments. The plants and fauna were added for even more of an atmosphere to be presented to the player.

5. Forza Horizon had over 300 cars, however, does not include the racing cars from the Forza Motorsport series, not reusing assets and instead creating a completely new library of vehicles to choose from.

6. The initial conception of the summer music festival and motorsport racing plot was birthed from that of the highly popular music festival, Coachella. The aim was to create a more relaxed racing experience.

7. The development for every Forza Horizon game is a 2 year cycle with the main installation of Forza Motorsport series filling the gaps. This Microsoft exclusive is still going strong with no deterioration of quality.

8. The development for Forza Horizon 2 was created on both the Xbox 360 and the Xbox one, with Sumo digital focusing on the pre-generation version and Playground Games focusing on the next generation. They were considered different games in production, with the Xbox One version obviously boasting additional features and aesthetics such as dynamic weather and Drivatars.

9. Forza Horizon 2 takes place in Southern Europe, more specifically a fictitious race track between Southern France and Northern Italy. The decision was made to capture the brilliance of the surrounding landscape.

10. There was a cross-promotion with the movie Furious 7 that inspired Forza Horizon 2 Presents Fast & Furious, a standalone experience that introduced thrilling elements from the popular movie series such as nitro fuel.

11. Electronic Arts had to allow the assets of Porsche vehicles since they are the rightful license-holder for their appearance in Forza Horizon 2, this would continue to be the case in the later titles as well.

12. Forza Horizon 3 takes place on the roads of a fictitious Southern Australia taking the series to a large expanse and the first in the series to receive universal acclaim.

13. A special edition titled, the “Australian Tour Edition” was exclusively released in the country of origin. Added content were 4 new vehicles, a steel book, and a t-shirt of the locations within the game.

14. A new twist to the previous titles, instead of being a competitor in the Horizon festival instead one holds the position as director. A lot more control of in-game events and races can all be managed.

15. The entire campaign can be completed in four-player co-op, allowing one and their friends to share the beautiful environment and show off their custom cars.

16. Borrowing the feature from their brother series Forza Motorsport, this is the first Forza Horizon game to implement the ForzaVista mode within the game.

17. Forza Horizon 3 was the first in the series to introduce custom soundtracks within the game through linking Groove Music.

18. Featuring the Song, “The Trials” from Halo 5: Guardians, Forza Horizon 3 is the first within the series to license a song from another series.

19. Out of the hundreds of cars to choose from due to licensing issues, this insert in the series does not contain the Volkswagen brand.

20. This is the first Xbox Play Anywhere title in the series and one of the flagships for the new Microsoft feature.

21. Mattel’s Hot Wheels had a cross promotion for Forza Horizon 3 that included a new location of a hot wheels track with the addition of recognizable Hot Wheel brand cars.

22. Another cross-promotion was with that of Final Fantasy XV, a free DLC that redeemed the signature car, the Quartz Regalia, used within the game. For the road trip scenes were inspired by the gameplay of Forza Horizon 2.

23. The newest entry within the series, Forza Horizon 4, is the 11th game within the Forza line of games. With this festival taking place throughout the United Kingdom, focusing on the areas of Scotland and North West England.

24. The main new aesthetic presented is the changing of seasons that alter the environment around the player. Along with the dynamic weather, new temporary locations can be opened up such as frozen lakes in the winter or dried-up leaves in the fall.

25. Instead of the Drivatars filling the game world, instead, they are replaced with 72 actual players with all players experiencing the same in-game time and season.

26. Though being a widely online experience the features may be disabled by selecting Horizon Solo or creating a private lobby.

27. New customization options are introduced within this game such as the option to now purchase houses and driver customization.

28. With over 450 licensed cars presented, the brands of Lexus, Mitsubishi, and Toyota are not found due to licensing issues.

29. At E3 of 2018, Microsoft unveiled that they have officially bought Playground Games and added them as a studio acquisition.

30. And finally, Forza Horizon series has been progressively given more critical appraise with each entry within the series, with Forza Horizon 4 the most highly rated.

Let us know what you think of these facts and if you learned anything from them. Stay tuned to Gaming Instincts for more.