Forza Horizon 6

Every long-running open-world racer eventually hits the same wall: once the driving is solved, what is left to sell? Playground Games’ answer for Forza Horizon 6 is a new location. Published by Xbox Game Studios, it is the first Horizon game set in Japan, and Tokyo is the largest city the series has built. For a franchise that has always sold place as much as cars, that is a meaningful lever to pull.

The framing is familiar. The player arrives at the Horizon Festival as a tourist and climbs toward Horizon Legend status by racing, exploring and collecting from a roster of more than 550 real-world cars. The cultural center of gravity is what changes. This entry leans heavily on Japanese JDM car culture, and the event list reflects it. Alongside the standard festival races sit Time Attack events, Drag Meets and Car Meets, each drawn from a real corner of car culture. A home-and-garage system lets players set up personal spaces, CoLab lets them build events and share them, and online play covers both co-op and competitive PvP.

The game launched in May 2026 on Xbox Series X|S and PC, through Steam and the Microsoft Store. Paid early access opened a few days before the full release. A PlayStation 5 version has been announced. There is no iOS, Android or Nintendo Switch release.

Critics and players split along a clear line. Critics placed it among the best-reviewed games of 2026, with Metacritic scores around 90 and an OpenCritic rating of 91 (“Mighty”, 100% recommend). They singled out the Japan setting, Tokyo’s scale, the car list and the driving. Steam players are cooler. All-time reviews are Very Positive at 82% across roughly 43,900 English-language reviews, but the most recent 30-day window is Mixed at 64%. Their complaints are specific:

• PC technical and login problems during early access.
• Early access locked to a Premium edition priced at about $120.
• A sense that the game plays it safe and changes too little from Forza Horizon 5.
• A wave of negative Simplified Chinese reviews at launch.

That gap between critics and players is the most useful context for anyone weighing a purchase.

• Japan and a record-sized Tokyo: The first Horizon map set in Japan, anchored by the largest city the series has built.
• 550+ real-world cars: A collection that doubles as the progression spine, from festival tourist to Horizon Legend.
• JDM-focused event types: Time Attack, Drag Meets and Car Meets sit alongside conventional festival races.
• Detailed tuning and customization: Cars can be tuned and modified in depth, which matters for the specialized events.
• Home-and-garage system: Personal spaces that players set up and fill.
• CoLab: An event-creation tool for building races and sharing them with the community.
• Online co-op and PvP: Cooperative and competitive multiplayer modes.
• AutoDrive and full controller support: An accessibility option that can steer the car for the player, plus full gamepad support.

The Progression Loop

The climb from tourist to Horizon Legend is a status ladder, and its design priority is clear: almost everything counts. Racing, exploring and collecting all feed the same climb, so a player who would rather hunt a rare car than chase podium finishes still moves forward. That breadth is the series’ main strength and its main risk. When every activity earns progress, no single activity feels essential, and the loop can slide into checklist completion.

The 550+ car roster does most of the heavy lifting. A collection that size gives progression a very long tail and gives collectors an obvious goal. It also guarantees that many cars in the garage will barely be driven. Quantity serves the collector and depth serves the enthusiast, and this roster is built for the collector first.

Japan as a Design Decision

Setting is the Horizon signature, and Japan fits the subject with unusual precision. Building around JDM car culture gives the roster, the event types and the map a shared logic: the cars, the venues and the disciplines all point at the same scene. A festival that could have landed anywhere now has a reason to be where it is. That coherence is the strongest argument for this entry.

Tokyo is the riskier half of the decision. A dense city is a harder design problem than open countryside. Junctions, tight corners and short straights change the rhythm of a race, and they reward braking and car placement over flat-out speed. Making Tokyo the largest city in the series is a bet that players want that technical texture alongside open-road racing. We think it is the right bet for a game this invested in tuning, because urban routes punish a poorly set-up car in ways a highway never will.

Event Variety Through a JDM Lens

As formats, Time Attack, Drag Meets and Car Meets each do a different job:

• Time Attack is solitary and built around one clean line, so it rewards consistency over pack racing.
• Drag racing comes down to launch and shift timing, which moves the emphasis from cornering to setup.
• Car meets are social and presentational, and they give the customization systems an audience.

Together they widen what a Horizon event can be without adding anything foreign to car culture. That helps authenticity and limits anyone hoping this sequel would rethink its event structure. Each new category is a sensible addition to a familiar calendar rather than a new way to play.

Tuning, Garages and Ownership

Detailed tuning and customization matter more here than in a generic arcade racer because the events reward specialization. A drag build and a time-attack build want different things from the same chassis, so tuning has a purpose beyond numbers on a stat screen.

The home-and-garage system extends ownership beyond the car itself. Open-world racers run on the pleasure of owning things, and a space to set up and fill turns a 550-car list into a personal collection. It is a smart way to keep collectors coming back. Players who care only about lap times will see it as set dressing.

CoLab and the Online Layer

CoLab is the most forward-looking system in the package. A first-party tool for building and sharing events extends the game’s life beyond whatever Playground Games ships, and it gives the community a creative role. User-made content is always uneven, though, so the tool’s value rests on discovery. If the best community events rise above the forgettable ones, CoLab becomes a pillar. If not, it stays a menu item.

Online play covers co-op and competitive PvP, the two modes the genre expects. Nothing on that list is unusual, and the rest of the online offering follows the same pattern: thorough coverage, little reinvention.

Accessibility

AutoDrive, which can steer the car for the player, is about the most consequential accessibility feature a driving game can offer. Racing games assume a baseline of fine motor control. Taking steering out of the equation opens the map, the collection and the festival to players who would otherwise be shut out. It suits a game framed as a festival to attend rather than an exam to pass.

The Iteration Problem

The recurring player complaint that the game plays it safe and changes little from Forza Horizon 5 is the fault line running through this design. Almost every new element is additive: a new country, new event types, a home system, a creation tool. The underlying loop of festival progression and car collection is recognizable. For newcomers that hardly matters, because they get a mature formula in a setting that suits it. For returning players, the case rests almost entirely on whether Japan and Tokyo are enough to justify climbing the ladder again. We expect many will say yes, but the slide in recent Steam sentiment shows that goodwill toward a familiar structure has limits.

Japan gives Playground Games a specific visual identity rather than generic scenery. Critics praised the setting and Tokyo’s scale, and the art direction has a clear job: render a dense urban environment and fill it with cars that belong there. The JDM framing helps here, because the cars, the city and the events share one aesthetic instead of competing for attention.

The interface has a heavy load by design. More than 550 cars, a tuning suite, a home-and-garage system, CoLab and several event types all need menus. A game this broad will have a dense front end, and the risk is navigation that buries useful systems several layers deep.

On performance, the largest city the series has built is likely the most demanding environment in the franchise. PC players should expect it to ask more of their hardware than open countryside would. The concrete evidence comes from Steam player reviews, which cite technical and login problems on PC during the early-access window. The login trouble matters beyond inconvenience. It shows how much of the game depends on online services, and it hit the players who had paid the most to start early.

On PC, Steam is one of two storefronts for the game, alongside the Microsoft Store. Xbox Series X|S was the console version at launch.

• Input: Full controller support is listed, and it matters. An open-world racer is designed around analog throttle, brake and steering, which a gamepad delivers and binary keyboard keys cannot. PC players should treat a controller as the intended way to play.
• Pricing and early access: Paid early access opened a few days before full release and came only with the Premium edition at around $120. Steam reviewers singled this out, and it remains the clearest value question when choosing an edition.
• Launch stability: Steam player reviews cite technical and login problems on PC during the early-access window, a blemish on an otherwise strong critical launch.
• Store sentiment: All-time Steam reviews are Very Positive (82% of about 43,900 English reviews), while recent reviews are Mixed (64% over 30 days). The launch period also saw a wave of negative Simplified Chinese reviews.
• Platform reach: A PlayStation 5 version has been announced. There is no iOS, Android or Nintendo Switch version.

Forza Horizon 6 makes one big decision and builds everything around it. Japan ties the roster, the events and the map together. Tokyo gives the series its largest city. The JDM focus gives Time Attack, Drag Meets and Car Meets a reason to exist beyond variety for its own sake. CoLab and AutoDrive are the additions with the longest reach: one extends the game’s lifespan, and the other widens its audience.

The structure underneath keeps it out of the top tier. The festival ladder, the collection loop and the online modes are recognizably Forza Horizon 5’s, and the player complaint that it plays it safe is fair. The launch made things worse. Early access came only with a roughly $120 Premium edition, Steam players reported PC technical and login problems in that window, and recent Steam reviews have slid to Mixed. The critics’ scores around 90 reflect how strong the foundation is, and the player split reflects how little of it is new.

We recommend it without hesitation to newcomers, JDM fans and collectors. Returning players should come for Japan, knowing the structure will be familiar.