Forza Horizon exists because Project Gotham Racing didn’t want a reboot

Forza Horizon only exists because Project Gotham Racing rejected a reboot at the time.

That comes from a new interview from Playground Games’ studio head Trevor Williams GQ out.

From one idea to another

According to Williams, the development studio then proposed a reboot of the racing game series to Forza’s General Manager Dan Greenawalt and Forza’s Corporate Vice President Alan Hartman.

As he states, both were not interested in reviving PGR.

More on the subject:

Ultimately, however, there was a crucial twist: “After five minutes, Alan asked, ‘What would you do with Forza? Where would you go with Forza?’ And we gave them a pitch for what literally became Horizon almost on a napkin.”

The rest is history. With the release of the first Forza Horizon, the Forza franchise split in two.

Originally developed by Bizarre Creations, Project Gotham Racing was one of the most popular franchises in the early days of Xbox. After Activision took over the development studio in 2007, Microsoft decided to stop producing new parts.

Given the continued popularity of the Forza series and Forza Horizon, a Project Gotham Racing revival is unlikely to happen in the future.

A new Forza Motorsport is coming to Xbox Series X/S and PC in Spring 2023.