Gran Turismo’s Primary Console Competitor May Be No More

by

In terms of console rivalries, the competition between racing simulators Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport used to be a significant arena for battle.

The iconic series from PlayStation has consistently drawn massive interest thanks to its history on the PS1 and PS2, yet during the PS3 era, it seemed to lose some of its competitive edge.

Many preferred Forza Motorsport over Gran Turismo 5, particularly since the latter frequently experienced delays and had issues with an unstable presentation and incomplete features. (You might recall the outdated car models from the PS2 era.)

Moving forward to the present, there’s no doubt about it: Gran Turismo 7 made a powerful comeback, while Forza Motorsport’s long-awaited reboot for Xbox Series X|S struggled significantly, ranking 463rd in the UK sales charts during its release year.

And it looks like Xbox’s sim racer may now have run out of road.

This week’s reports indicate that approximately half of the staff at developer Turn 10 were laid off, which is part of Xbox’s large-scale job cuts. A former member of the team, Fred Russell, stated that “the team no longer exists”.

It’s important to mention that Russell parted ways with the studio before the recent round of layoffs. However, he might still maintain ties with the team.

Nevertheless, here’s his comment in full:

The Forza Motorsport team’s base closed down at Turn 10, marking an end to their operations. It’s a melancholy moment for fans of top-tier car racing video games. I had a fantastic journey with them.

Certainly! Recently, Microsoft has been concentrating on the open-world arcade spinoff series, Forza Horizon, for the franchise, and it’s been experiencing strong sales on PlayStation 5 as of now.

It seems that with Gran Turismo 7 currently leading the competitive racing scene on PlayStation 5, and dedicated simulators like iRacing available on PC, it appears challenging for the Forza Motorsport series to find its niche any longer.

It’s quite possible that the team still working at Turn 10 Studios will keep contributing to the Forza Horizon series, as there’s an anticipated sixth installment slated for release in 2026.

However, it appears that this conclusion is unfortunate for a show that, for several years at least, strived to make Gran Turismo the absolute best it could be.

Read More

2025-07-04 21:06