There’s nothing quite like a leak coming from the official channels. That was the situation with Forza Horizon 6, the wildly anticipated follow-up to 2021’s Mexican-set FH5, after Microsoft’s official Instagram account for the Forza Horizon series declared that the “Horizon Festival is heading to Japan.” Oopsie. However, it’s all now official after its proper announcement during Tokyo Game Show’s Xbox broadcast.
Clearly intended to be a big part of Microsoft’s live broadcast for the Japanese show, the Japanese location slip is embarrassing, but not calamitous, give it was only a matter of hours before the proper reveal. Alongside a wealth of footage of Ninja Gaiden 4, Microsoft Flight Simulator and Mistfall, the new Forza Horizon became a reality.
Lots of rumors had made Japan seem like the most likely location, and a significantly different setting for the franchise that embraces such enormous changes between entries. FH4 was set in the bucolic back lanes of the English Cotswolds, while 5 opted for the diametrically different Mexican deserts. Japan represents another seismic change for the enormously adored racing series, the country offering vast mountainous regions alongside its advertising-lit city streets and small, sleepy towns.
No footage was revealed, with the tiresome inevitability that this would be all about the melodramatic announcement, rather than something substantial about the game. Instead we saw a drawn out (albeit very pretty) cutscene of a garage wall covered in license plates and memorabilia from all the previous settings, before looking out the window to see Mount Fuji.
Given the game is due as soon as next year—although we don’t yet know when next year—you can expect many more teasers and trailers in the near future. This was clearly more about the timing for the Tokyo Game Show than a desire to properly reveal the game to us just yet.
