‘Forza Horizon 6’ Is Finally Going To Japan

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If there’s one thing that gamers and car enthusiasts have in common, it’s their love of Japan. Home of Honda and Hatsune Miku, Infiniti and itasha, the Nissan Z and Zero Two — gamers and car enthusiasts both adore and fetishize Japan in equal measure. So it’s no surprise that, after years of begging from fans, Playground Games is finally taking the “Forza Horizon” series to Japan. In fact, the only surprise is that it’s taken this long. 

In 2026, we’ll get the long-awaited followup to 2021’s “Forza Horizon 5.” After touring the scenic locales of Colorado, France and Italy, Australia, the UK, and Mexico, the sixth entry in the series will finally visit the twisty touge roads and wide Wangan expressways of Japan — probably. In fact, Playground Games hasn’t given us much information as to what types of environments the new game will include, but a blog post about the announcement did include references to Tokyo and “rural and mountain areas.” Get your AE86es ready. 

Why now?

Playground Games’ art director said in that blog post that the series could finally visit Japan thanks to technical improvements — modern gaming hardware can now render exactly as many sakura blossoms as it takes to tell players they’re really, truly in Japan. But, after Playground Games’ parent company Microsoft fired the entire team behind the “Forza Motorsport” series, it’s likely that “Forza Horizon 6” now has two games’ worth of financial expectations from management weighing it down, so it’s hard not to see Japan as a sort of “break glass in case of emergency” locale for the Horizon Festival. Microsoft needs this release to go well, so it’s finally looking to the setting that players have wanted for so long.

“Forza Horizon 6” is set to release next year, likely in September or October — the series has long released in that pre-holiday timeframe, and there’s no reason to think it’ll change now. Expect it to cost the $70 that AAA games now seem to command, and launch on Xbox and PC at release. It’s set to come to PlayStation 5 too, though that release will come some unspecified period of time later.