A few days ago, we learned that Microsoft had gutted one of its longest-running studios, laying off roughly 50% of Turn 10, the stewards of Forza Motorsport. The writing was already on the wall, but now a former employee is alleging what we feared: Forza Motorsport is no more.
That’s according to Fred Russel, a former content creator at Turn 10. Now, before we continue, it needs to be said that Russel hasn’t worked at the company for around a decade, so scepticism is healthy. It’s very likely he still has contacts at the studio who have fed him information, but who can know for sure?
Posting on his Facebook page, Russel said “Turn 10 Studios has shuttered the Forza Motorsport space and the team is no more. A very sad day for one of the best car racing video games.”
However, Russel was questioned by another former employee of both Turn 10 and Playground Games, Kayla Goullaud, who worked as a community manager. She asked Russel where he had heard the information, stating: “I don’t believe the space is shuttered, nor is the studio closed.”
Russel replied, “the studio is open to support the Horizon side… shuttered the Forza Motorsport side only.”
His words slightly contradict his prior statement of “the team is no more.” Perhaps, though, he simply meant that the core of what was Turn 10 is now gone.
Being a support studio implies the other 50% of the team that was not laid off in the initial reports are indeed still employed and working, perhaps even still under the Turn 10 name, even if they are now nothing more than extra horsepower for the much more popular Forza Horizon series.
A quick flick through LinkedIn does reveal Turn 10 employees are still active and posting about surviving the cull. So far, I haven’t seen anything confirming what Turn 10’s role will be, but with such a massive reduction in staff it seems like a safe bet that another Forza Motorsport won’t be made by them. There’s a slim chance that Playground Games could take it over, but they are undoubtedly already very busy with Forza Horizon and the upcoming Fable. Indeed, Phil Spencer has hinted that both Forza and Fable will launch in 2026.
It’s also not clear whether the physical Turn 10 space has been or is being closed, like Russel suggests, or if it will remain open. I imagine it will be closed, though, to further reduce costs, unless there isn’t enough space to move the Turn 10 staff over to Playground Games.
We also can’t rule out the possibility that the surviving Turn 10 team will continue to update and support Forza Motorsport, a game which was designed to be an ongoing live-service style title. If Microsoft didn’t see any value in creating a full sequel, then cutting the staff in half and continuing with a small support team makes cold, hard business sense.
For now, though, we do not know exactly why Turn 10 was hit so heavily. Of course, the previous Forza Motorsport seems the most likely cause. While the prior games released every 2 years, Forza Motorsport took 6 years to launch, coming out in 2023 but launching in a state that fans were not happy about. Only in recent months with continuous updates from the team has player sentiment seemed to really turn around, with many people commenting that it took them 2 years to fix the game.
Meanwhile, the Forza Horizon games have gone from strength to strength, gaining a much larger player base in the process and even drifting over to PlayStation where it appears to have done well for itself.