Forza Horizon 6 studio admits it hasn’t been talking to players enough

Playground Games has admitted it hasn’t been talking to Forza Horizon 6 players enough, and says it’s now looking at changes to both the game’s post-launch content and how the studio communicates. The short statement, posted on the studio’s X account on 6 October, follows months of complaints from players and content creators who felt their feedback was disappearing into a void.

“We’re reading all your comments about Forza Horizon 6, and we realise that we haven’t been talking with you as much as we could be,” the studio wrote, adding that it hears the feedback on post-launch updates and is “looking into future changes to both in-game content and the ways we communicate with you.” It ended with “Stay tuned!”, without a timeline, a roadmap or any specific commitment.

Why players were frustrated

Forza Horizon 6 launched on Xbox Series X|S and PC in May to strong reviews, and, as VGC reports, a Metacritic score of 90. Since then, the game has followed a steady schedule: a new Festival Playlist series every four weeks, split into weekly seasons with tasks to complete and cars to unlock.

Per Traxion, Playground dropped the livestreams, video explainers and developer personalities it used for previous games, and now relies on written website posts to announce updates. The Forza Monthly show, once the studio’s main direct line to fans, has also been missing.

IGN’s report points to videos from Forza creators including STEVIO2175, AR12Gaming and HokiHoshi that list the community’s grievances. Beyond the silence, the most prominent request is in-game voice chat, which Forza Horizon 6 lacks even though 2023’s Forza Motorsport still supports it. “The devs have not responded at all. No communication, no public responses, nothing,” STEVIO2175 said in one video. Some in the community have also wondered whether the quiet is linked to the wider restructuring at Xbox, which recently confirmed another 268 job cuts. That remains speculation; Playground hasn’t said why its approach changed.

The update that landed alongside it

The statement arrived just after the studio’s latest series update, Horizon Meets, began rolling out on 5 October. According to the official announcement, the update centres on a collaboration with 7-Eleven, with a limited-time 7-Eleven car meet in the Evolving World and an EventLab prop pack. It also adds three new-to-Horizon cars (the 2025 BMW M4 CS, 1968 Holden Monaro GTS 327 and 2000 Honda Prelude Type SH), a new Treasure Car, 200 new Horizon Play levels and engine swaps for several existing cars.

The Horizon Meets Festival Playlist begins on Thursday, 8 October at 2:30pm UTC, which is 6:30pm in the UAE. The limited-time series content runs until 5 November, per the release notes. Playground continues to direct bug reports and feature requests to the Forza Feedback Portal, but the portal only works in one direction. Players want to hear back about what’s being considered.

Still no PS5 date

The timing is awkward for Playground, which has plenty on its plate. The studio is preparing the first of Forza Horizon 6’s two planned expansions, Fable is also on its slate, and the PlayStation 5 version still has no release date. In September, Xbox reiterated that the PS5 port is due in 2026. With October already under way, any launch this year would come at fairly short notice.

That port matters commercially. Forza Horizon 5 arrived on PS5 more than four years after its Xbox debut and reportedly sold more than five million copies on Sony’s console alone. A new audience joining a live-service game is a good moment to have the communication problem fixed, and the next series update, themed around City Life, will be the first test of whether “stay tuned” leads to anything.