Forza Motorsport Development Team at Turn 10 Reportedly Shut Down - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 04 July 2025 / 8,201 Views
The massive Microsoft layoffs yesterday saw many Xbox subsidiaries see at least some layoffs with some seeing 100 or more people let go. One of the studios with the biggest cuts is Turn 10 that reportedly saw nearly 50 percent of its staff laid off.
Former Turn 10 employee Fred Russell in a post on Facebook is now claiming the Forza Motorsport team has been shut down.
Turn 10 Studios has shuttered the Forza Motorsport space and the team is no more," said Russell. "A very sad day for one of the best car racing video games. I loved my time there."
If this is true the remaining employees are likely going to focus on updating ForzaTech and will act as more of a support studio for Playground Games on the Forza Horizon series.
The last entry in the Forza Motorsport series was 2023's Forza Motorsport.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
More Articles
i was expecting them to cancel fable tbh pre alpha gameplay looked like a fan made project
it was alittle confusing to me too on this because they are both call forza. Playground games make forza horizon and the new fable. turn 10 made forza motorsports.
It was pretty obvious the moment they announced half the studio have been laid off...the studio is running on a skeleton crew at that point how the hell are they gonna proceed to a next big project.
The remaining guys will be sent to work and help on other projects, mainly Horizon I guess.
Your right though, if more than half of your studio is laid off.... it doesn't exactly shout "time to do a new game".
Sad to see, but it does seem that the appeal of Forza Motorsport had been supplanted by Forza Horizon in recent years.
The last horizon game was just average. They should have cancelled this and kept motorsport going
Or just kept both going without bullshit practices.
We were told 50%, not all of it. This means no more Forza Motorsport? Is the team at turn 10 just support and higher ups or something?
'If this is true the remaining employees are likely going to focus on updating ForzaTech and will act as more of a support studio for Playground Games on the Forza Horizon series.'
I guess there will still be developers as well, but they will be focusing on the engine instead of game development. Or maybe some developers will also be helping Playground Games in actual game development.
Yes, rumors say no more Forza Motorsports. Now they will help the other team doing Horizon, and otherwise help other studios (if their help isn't wanted there). Its like a Support studio, who's job is to move around and help other studios. However since their expertise is in racers, it'll likely mostly be Forza Horizons.
News is that Nadella wants to spend 88 billion on AI development.
I always thought that releasing a new Forza or Ratchet every 2 years was a bit much. But you don't go and fire one of your most talented teams. The CEOs at Microsoft truly don't care about making quality games.
No surprise, can't compete against the king of car sim that is Gran Turismo.
Turn 10 will not be missed, just like if all satanicsoft studios shut down
Turn 10 failed themselves launching this motorsport as a disaster,
They copied polyphony with the copy paste tactics back then with gt5 to gt6
No real effort made.
It was far from polished at launch so sales number was disappointing.
Yeah I heard that rumor too.... crazy. They have 1 game that rates abit lower than the normal games, and sales are pretty bad for, and then, this happens.
As a long time gran Turismo fan, I'm sad to hear this. Competition makes a product better. It's an insult that horizon continues while they shun thism
Wasn't the last Gran Turismo a much better game overall though? I thought reception and sales, were much better for that one. Forza Motorsports (the last game) seemed like a flop, sales wise, and the community seemingly disappointed in the game. I remember seeing alot of videos compareing it to gran turismo from the Forza side, with people (xbox fans) complaining about quality ect.
Damn it, was hoping to see the series on PS5 which would have giving it a nice life.
Not surprising considering their last game was released in a poor state.
Forza has always been a pillar franchise for Microsoft, gutting one of their best developers is a pretty worrying thing to see.
I for one can't believe they didn't even try to see if the series could have a second life on PS5. I'm convinced it would have found the audience it needed to continue.
I've said this before and I'll say it again. I hate Microsoft. Not Xbox, but Microsoft.
They make shit corporate decisions, like mass layoff, overuse of temp staff, and short sighted business gambles.
This filters down to Xbox and turns what was once great, into the utter shit show it is today.
--Edit--
Plus I just looked how many copies they sold of Horizon on PS5 and it's a lot!
https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/product/UP6312-PPSA22327_00-0547256477986893
I know it's not an exact science but normally you can get a handle on digital sales numbers by how many people have rated it. Death Stranding 2 sold 1.5 million copies and has 15k reviews; and I find this scale seems to fit most reported figures.
Forza Horizon so far has 22k reviews, so it probably of sold around 2.2 million
Forza horizon due to it's being the premier open world racing game with little direct competition on PC and PS5 it was primed to succeed. Unfortunately unlike Horizon with its growth, Forza motorsport was in decline and had limited growth avenues with the PC side having a very competitive racing sim environment and the PS5 having Gran Turismo 7.
This has to be one of the crappiest decisions in the gaming industry for a long time... Definitely up there with closing down: Ensemble Studios, Lionhead, Digital Anvil, Arkane Austin, Westwood Studios, Bullfrog Entertainment, Volition, Monolith and more.
I would have hoped Microsoft would have learned NOT to pull the trigger so quickly on developer closures after Ensemble, which they ironically regretted... As Age of Empires still sells extremely well even today.
No, that's a false narrative thinking reviews can indicate sales, it doesn't, that's all just guessing.
Let's not pretend you all of a sudden like Xbox. It's a common trend we see when companies have bad news, people spread hate, misinform and even lie to hurt a company's image, only to when that company needs to make drastic decisions, they come out and say "Oh but I liked Xbox" come on now.
I saw the exact same thing with Sega, no one liked Sega, they spread all the bad press about Sega, only to be like "I loved Sega, can't believe they left the industry" after millions of people spreading Sega sucks and killing the word by month sales for the brand.
It's all like a raid boss I have on lock down and on farm, I know the next move these people make. The next step is if Xbox all of a sudden left the industry, all the Haters will come out and say "But we loved Xbox, I can't believe they aren't competing anymore"
Its not what fans want to see, but three major points is what cost Forza MotorSport its life.
1) The last game released unfinished
2) Last game didn't profit well
3) They have Forza Horizon which is what sells
So why make a game that just doesnt hit like it use to? Focus on the Horizon series, thats where the money is.
One failed game shouldn't be a nail in the coffin for a developer or game series.
Release it on PS5 and Switch and see how sales go at the very least.
...And not releasing it on Xbox One/Xbox One X didn't help matters either as the Xbox One platform is larger than Xbox Series by about 50%.
They could have done it, but the writing was on the wall. It didn't sell on PC either. Gamers want Horizon and producing two racing games is clearly cutting eachothers lunch.
The staff at Turn 10 had its chance with its latest entry and fell over the starting line.
Hopefully this sends a message to the rest of the developers, and that's quality first.
Forza Motorsport 7 was a good game and one of the Xbox One's better looking titles.
The developer obviously has some good crew on it's team.
To get rid of all that and simply not let them work on another project is a complete and utter waste... And honestly it just mimics Microsoft's video development failures over the past several decades.
Keeping the game only on Xbox Series/Steam and not expanding out was always going to limit sales... That and a failure to support and add content after the fact didn't help it's long term prospects.
...And the terrible name doesn't help. "Forza Motorsport". - Are they talking about the first game? Naming is important to distinguish yourself from other entries.
But still, closing the studio on one bad game? (Which was more average rather than bad!) Shit move. Get them to make something else.
I think this just highlight Microsoft's priorities with it's console business, which as an Xbox Series owner, doesn't instill much faith that I might actually match my OG Xbox game collection in terms of quality or quantity.
Forza is a graphical show piece but its sales were declining with every entry. Forza Horizon is the series moving forward and i own all the FM games
Honestly I think this is just them not wanting to put their Sim Racer up against Sony's sim racer. They rather avoid that, and go all in with Horizon. Look at how many Mario Kart sold.... there is clearly a bigger market, for the more "arcade" type racer. If your Sim racer, is having trouble, and not looking great compared to the competitions.... why bother? Maybe its as simple as that.
Forza, Gears and Halo were the pillar franchises of the XBox 360 era that drove sales and success... They were almost annual releases at one point.
...But perhaps that is also the issue, annual releases just drives disinterest over the long term unless you "mix it up". - Which is where the Horizon games come into play.
The other aspect that was pushing Turn 10 was also the technology, which is what the Horizon games are built upon, that's going to be a loss now as well.
Still, releasing Forza Motorsport on Switch 2, Playstation 5, Playstation 4 and Xbox One would have accrued several million more in sales, but the easy approach is just to shut it down and give up I guess.
Yes, two generations ago (more than a decade now), many considered forza Motorsport to be a pillar franchise. But it hasn't been that for a good while. If you want to look at IP that existed prior to their relatively recent buying spree (stuff that people associate only with Xbox), I think you would have to say that Halo, Gears, and Forza Horizon are the pillars at this point, as they have been for at least the last several years.
But, it's not accurate that Forza has "always been" a pillar. That ship sailed a while ago.
Forza Motorsport 7 which was the release before the latest release, was a decent game.
I would argue Halo is no longer a "pillar" it's heavily mocked these days. Halo 5 was a shit-show, infinite was struggling from the moment it was revealed... Master Chief Collection was a bug-a-thon... And Halo 4's multiplayer seemed to implode rapidly after release.
Basically I think it's a bit presumptive to simply close the studio down and not let them try their hand at something else... Microsoft made this mistake massively with Ensemble studios, to the point where many Microsoft execs claimed it was a mistake.
Ensemble made quality games.
No it wasn't poor.
It was a decent game that was overshadowed by GT7.
GT7 isnt sold on Xbox, so it has no effect on FM sales. FM also won Racing game of the year like GT7. They are both good games with their own flaws, however Xbox has Forza Horizon which is what the gamers are buying on Xbox, not FM.
Xbox whole strategy going forwards is about getting sales other places than on xbox though (they are leaveing hardware imo). So yes, GT would have a effect on FM going forwards.
They won't need FM, because they might end up getting GT via Steam etc
"What have you done for me lately?" Yeah... their last game, had a drop in quality, and its sales flopped. However it did have a long history of high scores (overall) in the series, and good sales. Having 1 miss, should be "okay" no? like don't you earn some slack if you've pulled so many wins?
The series is in decline. I own all of them and honestly, I'd rather spend the money on Horizon, there are plenty of Sim racers out their so its not like there is nothing to play in that category.
Horizon is where it is at. FH3, 4 & 5 are some of the best racing fun iv had.
