Forza Horizon 6 could be heading to Japan — and the reveal may be sooner than you think

Forza Horizon 5 is rapidly approaching its fourth birthday, and the open-world racing game has already enjoyed quite the journey... but Playground Games and Xbox Game Studios are surely working on what comes next, right?

Fans have been waiting for news of Forza Horizon 6 for ages now, and we even got a tease from Xbox's Phil Spencer that we may see the hotly anticipated sequel in 2026. Now, we have reason to believe we may actually see FH6 even sooner than that.

By "we," I mean Windows Central; here's the scoop.

Forza Horizon 6 could be announced this year

Reddit threads like this one have sparked new discussions of Forza Horizon 6 following a now-deleted Instagram post from an Australian car import company showing a Playground Games member digitally scanning a Kei (a class of ultra-compact Japanese vehicles) for FH6.

As Kei vehicles are rarely seen outside of Japan, the post revitalized hope that the Forza Horizon series will finally head to Japan for its next setting, a location that has been requested for practically every entry since the first game.

A lot of people and even websites have run with this, but the "leak" is admittedly weak; there's no concrete evidence that Forza Horizon 6 is set in Japan, only that it'll likely feature more Japanese vehicles. Of course, Windows Central has more to add to the story, thanks to our sources.

We've seen official, widely circulated documents strongly suggesting that Forza Horizon 6 is actually planned to be announced during 2025's Tokyo Game Show, an annual gaming-focused conference kicking off in Japan toward the end of September.

This year's TGS is set to be the largest in the event's history, and Xbox has already confirmed it'll be attending — and announcing. With the Tokyo Game Show focused on the Japanese gaming market, choosing to reveal Forza Horizon 6 here rather than at events like Gamescom only makes sense if the game is, in fact, set in Japan.

As always, these are still rumors and should be taken with a grain of salt — but it's definitely more solid than just a wayward Instagram post.

What can we expect from Forza Horizon 6?

Forza Horizon 5 has seen immense success since its launch in 2021, and has even been one of 2025's best-selling games after its fated arrival on PlayStation. The Forza Horizon 5 car list also numbers well over 800 unique vehicles, although that number has now stopped growing.

Yes, I knew Forza Horizon 5 was destined for greatness from the moment I reviewed it, but the signs have been here for months that Xbox is preparing to begin a new era of Forza. Forza Horizon 5 is no longer receiving new content, instead recycling its years of constant monthly updates as whatever comes next cooks in the background.

Now that we're reasonably certain FH6 will be announced sooner rather than later (likely with a 2026 release window), we can talk about what to expect. The obvious? Forza Horizon 6 will be built on the same, upgraded ForzaTech engine powering Forza Motorsport (2023) and the upcoming Fable reboot, so we can expect major visual upgrades.

I'm most excited for enhancements to the driving physics, though, as Forza Horizon 6 should be the deepest and most detailed Forza Horizon game yet.

The Forza Motorsport simulation racing franchise may be effectively dead after heavy layoffs at developer Turn 10 Studios, but we also know the remainder of Turn 10 is now focused on supporting Playground with Forza Horizon, so we can expect this game to be ambitious in scale and scope.

If FH6 really is set in Japan (and we're pretty confident at this point that it is), that'll hopefully fix one of the biggest issues many people have with the current entry. Forza Horizon 5 is the biggest and most beautiful Forza Horizon game of all time, but many racers claim the map (which is set in Mexico) is bland and boring.

A Japanese setting will hopefully result in a more engaging and interesting map for long-time play, and Japan has a thriving car culture that's just perfect for the Horizon Festival... but there is another change I really want to see.

Forza Horizon 5 enjoyed longer support than previous titles, but it also highlighted the weaknesses of the monthly updates centered around the Festival Playlist.

FH5's live service elements quickly grew repetitive, with the majority of updates feeling inconsequential apart from the addition of a handful of new cars. I'd like to see FH6 adapt a new approach to post-launch support with more varied and meaningful updates — even if they don't arrive as frequently.

Finally, what about platform support? Forza Horizon 6 is absolutely coming to Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and Xbox Game Pass on day one, but will PlayStation players get the chance to play?

Considering how successful FH5 has been on Sony's platform, there's zero chance its sequel won't also come to PlayStation consoles... I just don't expect it to be on day one. I expect we'll see Forza Horizon 6 arrive on PlayStation six months to a year after the initial launch (hopefully with actual cross-save support this time).

Hopefully, we'll get the answers to all of these questions and more when Forza Horizon 6 is (probably) announced at Tokyo Game Show 2025 in around a month.