Between Tokyo Tower, Shibuya Crossing, and much more, Forza Horizon 6’s version of Japan will feature many iconic sights from the region. But even as it touts Tokyo City as five times larger than anything else it ever designed before, Playground Games isn’t aiming to completely recreate the country “mile for mile.”
Instead, it’s about capturing the “essence of the place.” As design director Torben Ellert explained to Xbox Wire, “It’s easy to think of an authentic space as a recreation of a place, but it’s less about that accuracy, and more about the feel of it. If you think about driving in Tokyo, for example, what does that look like? What are the things that make it feel like this place? You’d see it in the distance from the freeways, before passing through the suburbs, then suddenly you’re in downtown, surrounded by skyscrapers.
“It’s about looking at roads, references, thinking about what you see in each place and how it feels when you turn a corner. You don’t recreate every corner – you recreate the experience of having something revealed when you get there.”
It’s not an easy endeavor, especially in a series like Forza Horizon, which offers “a big open world” and “consequence-free traversal.” Nevertheless, the team worked on balancing “what it feels like to be there” with “the fun of a Horizon game where you can jump in a hypercar, absolutely spin it off a cliff and earn points for doing that.” Based on the gameplay footage thus far, it appears to have nailed that balance pretty well.
Launching on May 19th for Xbox Series X/S and PC (with the PS5 version out in late 2026), Forza Horizon 6 sees players as tourists in Japan. Accompanied by their friends, Jordy and Mei, they seek to enter the Horizon Festival, working their way through the Qualifiers and eventually reaching Legend Island.
Of course, there’s more to it than that, from filling out the new Collection Journal with various mementos to customizing your own Estate and inviting friends over. Over 550 cars await, including new Aftermarket Vehicles equipped with rare parts that can be discovered in the world.
