Forza Horizon 6 kicks off month of updates in the dullest way possible

While there’re more Forza Horizon 6 updates to follow, Microsoft’s first unfiltered gameplay demonstration is disappointingly boring.

2026 is a very busy year for Playground Games, since it not only has the Fable reboot launching in the autumn but also Forza Horizon 6, which arrives in just a couple of months on May 19.

Fans were treated to some snippets of gameplay back in January, but they showed very little, with Playground promising the largest city in the series and deeper community features.

Earlier today, though, nine minutes of raw gameplay was shared on YouTube and it’s… kind of boring.

The footage is meant to kick off a month’s worth of coverage from IGN, so presumably the gameplay is what Microsoft and Playground have opted to share with the site.

For the first real showing of Forza Horizon 6 – one of the few genuinely popular franchises Xbox has nowadays – it does barely anything to get you excited, especially if it’s trying to attract new fans.

It’s just nine minutes of someone driving around the roads of Tokyo in complete silence. Granted, it’s all very pretty and looks traditionally Forza Horizon, but there’s not a whiff of any of the car customisation, estate building, or community meet-ups that Playground discussed previously. There’s no follow-up to the giant robot tease and, most importantly, no aactual racing.

This is yet another example of a recent trend of publishers putting little, if any, effort or showmanship into their announcements. Last month, Sony shared a release date for the Wolverine game with a bland social media post and no new gameplay.

Then just yesterday, Ubisoft shared a blog post that included artwork confirming the long-rumoured existence of an Assassin’s Creed 4 remake and yet had nothing to say about it, instead sharing pointlessly undescriptive updates on other Assassin’s Creed projects.

For what it’s worth, Forza fans seem happy enough with the new footage, with nearly 9,000 likes against 530 dislikes, at time of writing.

There is some disappointment to be found in the comments though, with several complaining about how, much like the last game, there’s a noticeable lack of traffic.

‘Nice that they close the whole city for the Saleen S7, no traffic to be seen,’ reads one comment by tatu782.

‘Apparently the population of Japan is around 10 people,’ jokes rjdobson96, while uxyu68 refers to the game as ‘Japan covid edition.’

Others, such as shineki1743 and Owedem, question why there was no deep dive into the game’s customisation features. But since IGN has plans to cover Forza Horizon 6 throughout all of March, that may well be on the way.

Given the success of Forza Horizon 5, Forza Horizon 6 is set to be a huge hit. Although it won’t be released on PlayStation 5 until after Xbox Series X/S and PC, which seems a missed opportunity on Microsoft’s part – especially as Fable will be available on PlayStation 5 from the start.

At a time where companies are complaining about the lack of growth in the games industry and are struggling to reach new audiences, you’d think Microsoft and others would put some more flair behind any promotional efforts.

At this rate Nintendo will be announcing their 2026 first party line-up with a random post on Discord.

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