One of the most anticipated streams at the Tokyo Game Show 2025 was the Xbox broadcast, primarily due to floating rumors that the next major Forza Horizon installment, Forza Horizon 6, would make its debut there. And now, the rumors are true (though the initial reveal via Instagram came earlier than the TGS forecasting), and the game’s setting is one that fans have been asking for years.
On September 25, Xbox unveiled a teaser trailer for the latest Forza Horizon entry at their official broadcast, confirming a 2026 release window and that the game would be set in Japan. To really get the latter point across, we saw some Japanese writing behind a Maneki-neko and Mount Fuji in the background, so we might be able to visit the country’s iconic peak in-game.
An important thing in the trailer was the Pinata Llama from Forza Horizon 5, so this could signal the return of Seasonal Events, Accolades, Challenges, and Eventlab. Of course, Pinata Prop is themed for Mexico, so there’s a good chance that the aforementioned Maneki-neko will be our next Forza Horizon mascot.
Since this was a teaser, we didn’t see much besides a brief cinematic with the “PEGI 3” rating. The post does confirm that Forza Horizon 6 will be playable on Xbox Game Pass on Day 1 and will be an Xbox Play Anywhere title, similar to Forza Horizon 5, so you still have cross-save and cross-play between Xbox and PC. There’s no sign that the game will be coming to PlayStation on launch day.
Forza Horizon comes to Japan / Image via Xbox
Before the official release, we saw some third-party leaks (working in collaboration with Playground Games) that hinted at Forza Horizon 6’s setting.
In a deleted post by the Australian company Cult & Classic, they mentioned the Forza team taking images of Kei cars and vans, including the Suzuki Every and Subaru Sambar. This was also later explained in Xbox’s recent blog post. With this, we get a distinct idea of the type of cars to debut in the upcoming Forza Horizon.
In other news, seasons are also returning to Forza Horizon 6. This was a highly appreciated feature back when it was introduced in Forza Horizon 4, but players complained the seasonal shifts in the sequel were much more subtle.
Forza Horizon has always had an eventful and energetic competitive scene across its recent entries. Although Forza Horizon 5 didn’t have a dedicated Ranked Mode, it still had small-scale tuning showcases and racing tournaments thanks to communities like Forza Team Wars, and the PlayStation 5 release invited an entire population previously foreign to the series since its inception.
With Forza Horizon 6, we can likely expect that same level of active engagement, especially after Xbox’s commitment to making the game accessible on PC and PlayStation this time around as well.
AloJapan.com