After years of requests, it’s official – Forza Horizon 6 is coming in 2026, and it is going to be set in Japan. Introduced as we speak through the Xbox Tokyo Sport Present 2025 Broadcast, we noticed a cinematic teaser trailer that included Easter eggs from every of the earlier video games within the open world driving sequence – earlier than providing a glimpse on the unimaginable world Playground Video games is creating.
After all, a teaser trailer is at all times going to generate much more questions – and fortunately I used to be capable of go straight to Playground Video games to get solutions. In dialogue with Artwork Director, Don Arceta and Cultural Advisor, Kyoko Yamashita, we dug into precisely why Japan was chosen as the subsequent location to discover, how this tackle Japan will really feel like a real reflection of the real-life nation, and far more.
Why Was Japan the Proper Match for the Subsequent Forza Horizon Sport?
With Playground Video games capable of take their decide of setting from wherever on this planet, selecting the correct location may very well be seen as a problem – however, with Japan, a lot was already in place.
“For a very long time, Japan has been high of Horizon followers’ want lists, so we’re excited to lastly be bringing this much-requested location to gamers in Forza Horizon 6,” explains Arceta. “Japan has such a singular tradition – from vehicles, to music, to vogue – that make it excellent for the subsequent Horizon setting. As with every Horizon title, we need to make sure that we do the nation justice by way of genuine illustration and Horizon open world playability – and now’s the best time to appreciate that totally for gamers.”
The timing is true, partially, attributable to practicalities – it now feels as if the technical facet can sustain with representing Japan appropriately, and Playground’s builders additionally come armed with an enormous quantity of expertise from earlier video games.
“The fantastic thing about Horizon video games is that every one offers us learnings and methods to make the subsequent even greater and higher,” says Arceta. “In addition to taking participant suggestions under consideration, we’ve additionally been capable of lean into extra sensible issues – as an illustration, the Forza Horizon 5 Sizzling Wheels DLC has helped us develop the elevated roads of Tokyo Metropolis in FH6.”
Yamashita provides that Japan is only a naturally attention-grabbing place to make your approach round, making it an ideal match for the form of exploration a Horizon sport encourages: “I like the coexistence of Japan: a neighborhood shrine beside a small workshop beside a neon arcade – conventional and trendy on the identical block. There’s a lot scope and inspiration to be explored with Japan, and the richness felt like a pure match for this sport.”
With Xbox going huge at Tokyo Sport Present, it additionally made it a pure match to announce the sport as we speak. “Whereas followers have been asking for this location for a very long time, it was essential to us to acknowledge the love and reverence we now have for Japan and its distinctive tradition,” Arceta continues. “What higher approach to try this than saying in Tokyo at Japan’s greatest gaming occasion of the 12 months?”
What Japanese Areas Will Be Included?
Horizon video games repeatedly carry out the feat of recreating a complete nation as a single, seamless map. It’s by no means a one-to-one chunk of the true world, reasonably a mix of areas that stability participant enjoyable with capturing the spirit of their inspiration. Japan, with so many various and acquainted areas, presents an enormous palette of potentialities for the crew. Whereas the teaser reveals us Mount Fuji and its environment, the place else will Playground pull from?
“Whereas we’re not saying an excessive amount of by way of element proper now, we’re excited to indicate followers the true breadth of magnificence – each pure and concrete environments – that Japan has to supply,” explains Arceta. “From the neon lights and towering buildings of Tokyo Metropolis – considered one of our most detailed and layered environments so far – to the serenity and pure great thing about Japan’s rural and mountain areas, we expect gamers might be blown away by the open world of Japan that we now have constructed.
“And whereas we’re not essentially making an attempt to recreate Japan and its environments like for like, our objective has at all times been to seize the nation’s distinctive cultural essence and current it again in essentially the most Horizon approach doable.”
Analysis was an enormous a part of this course of – Arceta, Yamashita, and the crew travelled to Japan to assist seize particulars that may not be as apparent when working merely from reference materials.
“The journey to Japan demonstrated that the dev crew have been actually approaching Japan with the best degree of curiosity and commentary,” enthuses Yamashita. “Throughout our fieldwork in Tokyo, many of the group have been first-time guests. A couple of days in, somebody mentioned, ‘For all of the power right here, it’s… quiet.’ That commentary – organized chaos with stunning calm – informed me they weren’t simply wanting; they have been feeling the place. It’s the form of perception you possibly can’t faux, and it formed later conversations about motion, etiquette, and sound.”
