Forza Horizon Announced, Set For 2012

Turn 10′s Forza Motorsport series has been one of the headline acts of Microsoft’s foray into the console market, and it seems that it has now spawned a spin-off. Having been leaked earlier in the week, the lid was officially lifted from Forza Horizon at the Microsoft Spring Showcase with a teaser trailer, though anything more than that is pure speculation at this point.

Set to the song, “Hey Boy Hey Girl” by The Chemical Brothers, it is a schizophrenic live action short cutting between scenes of a party atmosphere and some very slick looking driving. In reality, it reveals nothing, but the construction of it seems to imply a wider experience than the strictly track format that has been foremost in previous games. Some sources are bringing up the possibility of an open world racer with social aspects in the same vein as Test Drive Unlimited, which would certainly be a deviation from the norm. The trailer lists a release date of Autumn 2012, which also implies that the series is taking steps on to the route of annualisation, widely regarded as a bad choice when it comes to maintaining a high standard of quality and freshness.

It is important to note that this new game is being developed primarily at the newly founded Playground Games, a studio headed by former two Codemasters workers and containing employees that have worked on a number of different racing games from across the UK, so a certain experience is present. We’ll keep you updated as more concrete information about the inner workings of this game come to light.