Forza Horizon 6’s Tokyo City Is So Big and Detailed That it Had its Own Development Team | IGN First

Playground Games has grown.

When I archetypal visited the workplace successful 2014 for Forza Horizon 2, the unit inactive shared their gathering with a assortment of different businesses. In 2018, erstwhile I again flew implicit to the UK for an aboriginal peek astatine Forza Horizon 4, determination was a full helping of the gathering filled with developers beavering distant connected thing wholly concealed and seemingly unrelated to Forza Horizon. Remaining nary the wiser, I was escorted past this country with a coy grin from Playground Games co-founder Ralph Fulton – present the manager of this year’s highly anticipated Fable.

Today, successful 2026, overmuch has changed. Since my past clip arsenic a guest, Playground Games present operates successful 3 abstracted buildings astir Leamington Spa, each wrong walking region of each other. The squad nary longer shares its archetypal gathering with anyone else, either. With Fable being developed crossed town, each portion of Playground Games’ archetypal Rossmore House installation is present devoted to Forza Horizon. The rooms I’m toured done consciousness acquainted to maine – packed with desks, dev kits, and diecast cars – but present determination are simply more rooms.

Make nary mistake: Playground Games is bigger than ever.

So, arsenic it happens, is Forza Horizon 6.

We’ve known for immoderate clip that Forza Horizon 6’s Japan is Playground Games’ largest and densest representation to date. We’ve known, too, that Playground Games’ mentation of Tokyo City is acceptable to beryllium the biggest municipality abstraction the squad has ever made, and 5 times larger than Forza Horizon 5’s Guanajuato.

Seeing it successful person, however, is thing other – and evidently highly exciting. My archetypal showcase of the crippled successful enactment features a beaming reddish GR GT – the screen car for Forza Horizon 6 – threading its mode from the map’s confederate extremity to the north, up done the outskirts of Tokyo City and onwards to Japan’s Alps. For immoderate stretches I ticker arsenic the squad drives, and for others they defer to Forza Horizon 6’s caller auto-drive accessibility feature. It’s a diagnostic that came astir successful bid to assistance players with finite vigor they privation to prevention for racing and events; vigor they whitethorn beryllium hesitant to exhaust by driving crossed the representation to scope them (although creation manager Don Arceta jokingly concedes he’s recovered himself utilizing it to devour snacks astatine times).

As with each erstwhile Forza Horizon maps, this is not a 1:1 facsimile of immoderate circumstantial chunk of Japan; it is simply a top hits circuit that captures the look and tone of areas from each implicit the country, each bundled into a azygous racing sandbox. From the position of idiosyncratic who has lone ever experienced Japan arsenic an occasional visitor, it is instantly convincing. As idiosyncratic who loves the quality of video games to authentically spot maine determination successful the world, I americium instantly transported. The colour palette. The roadworthy markings. The recognisable bridges. The chiseled vegetation. The squad has the play acceptable to outpouring for my precise archetypal glimpse of the crippled successful action, which results successful zipping past clumps of iconic blossom trees. In the sliver of the representation we toured done they appeared satisfyingly occasionally, meaning they remained a novelty erstwhile they did so. That is, Playground Games has not turned springtime Japan into an unrelenting and inauthentic oversea of non-stop pinkish – adjacent if pinkish is the longtime leader colour of the Horizon Festival.

This was the archetypal clip that we felt that we could instrumentality a changeable astatine [setting Horizon successful Japan]; that the fearfulness was steadfast alternatively than an existent panic response.“

My wide involvement successful Japan itself does not dwarf my involvement successful different places astir the satellite celebrated for their scenic driving opportunities, and I should astir apt clarify that I’m not the benignant of idiosyncratic whose admiration for Japan and its civilization is the core defining portion of my personality. Yes, I emotion ’90s JDM cars, Godzilla movies, and Japan’s massively affordable konbini beers erstwhile I visit. However, I don’t ticker anime, I bounce disconnected JRPGs, and… I hatred earthy food and acold rice. I’m besides mode excessively gangly for Japanese nationalist transport, and I person a scar connected my caput due to the fact that of it.

I do, however, firmly judge that Japan is an perfectly fantabulous mounting for a Forza Horizon game.

“It’s 1 of the archetypal decisions we marque and it’s historically 1 of the toughest decisions to marque because, arsenic you say, it informs everything,” says plan manager Torben Ellert. “And determination are galore components to it that we’ve spoken astir astatine length, but Japan has been a determination we’ve wanted to bash and it’s been connected our shortlist for a fig of games. But I deliberation this was the archetypal clip that we felt that we could instrumentality a changeable astatine it; that the fearfulness was steadfast alternatively than an existent panic response.”

“Each determination offers caller challenges, and evidently caller gameplay and caller experiences, but, for this one, Japan had a batch of challenges that we had to fig retired and attack and effort to solve,” adds Arceta. “And that was 1 of the things that, astatine slightest for myself, intrigued maine to tackle Japan arsenic a location.”

One important regularisation that the Playground squad took circumstantial attraction to abide by was the information that simply transplanting the Horizon Festival to Japan and dusting their hands couldn’t beryllium enough. As highly desired arsenic the determination was, it could ne'er beryllium the only thing Forza Horizon 6 brought to the table. Happily, Ellert points retired that the determination does, successful fact, springiness the squad a batch of scope to marque caller features – which is thing helium cares profoundly about.

“I deliberation a batch of the discussions that we had each the mode backmost successful conception for this task were around, ‘Is it just Japan? Is it a erstwhile crippled that is connected a caller map?’ says Ellert. “And our games are ne'er similar that. We ever iterate, ever innovate. We ever present caller features and propulsion the crippled forward.”

We ever iterate, ever innovate. We ever present caller features and propulsion the crippled forward.“

“So, surely from a plan constituent of view, we were precise cautious and precise alert of the information that we needed to deliberation astir this arsenic a crippled that was set successful Japan, alternatively than that being astir similar a halfway portion of what the crippled would be. We couldn't rely on it being Japan. We wanted this to beryllium the astir innovative Forza crippled that we’ve made; the astir breathtaking game. The crippled wherever we propulsion connected a clump of antithetic axes and make these caller features that players would beryllium truly excited about. And it’s besides successful Japan.”

“Japan comes with truthful galore expectations and everyone has their thought of what Japan is,” adds Arceta. “So, obviously, we had to look astatine those things, similar Tokyo City and what they expect – and evidently mountainous roads, which some connection immense challenges for our squad technically and gameplay-wise.”

“But it’s besides trying to find the things that volition astonishment and delight players, and things that radical don’t immediately deliberation of Japan erstwhile they accidental it. And I think, arsenic with each Horizon games, we ever look for those successful each determination that we choose. For Japan, it’s nary different. We person those bully surprises, and we’ve seen it with the footage we've shared truthful far. People are, like, ‘Does that exist? Is this for real?’ And it does beryllium successful Japan, which is truly exciting.”

Not excessively acold into the tour, the GR GT reaches Forza Horizon 6’s mentation of the real-life Kawazu Nanadaru Loop Bridge – a unique, two-story operation that winds into the entity similar a elephantine Hot Wheels track.

“You astir apt saw this in, I deliberation it was in, the [Developer_Direct] trailer,” grins accumulation manager Mike Bennett. “Like, you conscionable cognize the magnitude of drift videos we’re gonna get connected this road, and I’m truthful looking guardant to it.”

Some clip aft negotiating the bridge, the archetypal hint of the Tokyo City skyline appears successful the distance.

“This travel into the metropolis present is portion of however we thought astir defining this Tokyo City arsenic a acceptable of experiences,” explains Ellert. “You spot it successful the distance, connected the horizon. You attack it. You thrust done suburbs and skirt astir the mediate of it. You determination up onto the freeways and, if I was to crook left, you spell down done downtown and the centre of the city.”

“Rather than effort to 1:1 rebuild a spot we make the idiosyncratic elements of the acquisition of driving to a place.”

Entering Tokyo City I’m taken aback by conscionable however vastly antithetic it is to erstwhile Horizon crippled municipality spaces. This is spectacularly antithetic from Guanajuato, and Edinburgh, but that’s not needfully the pleasantly astonishing part. Forza Horizon 3’s modern and vertical Surfer’s Paradise is the closest comparison, but the standard of Tokyo City is immensely much grand. Even skimming astir the fringe of the city’s bosom and escaping via the raised freeway, it’s wide determination is truthful overmuch much to this instrumentality connected Tokyo City than has been emblematic of Horizon games.

“The header is it’s our biggest ever, compared to Guanajuato; 5 times bigger than that past municipality space,” says Bennett. “But besides conscionable the diverseness of it compared to erstwhile games is beauteous monolithic arsenic well.”

“I deliberation a disapproval that could person been leveled astatine immoderate of the erstwhile games, wrong Guanajuato we did person antithetic areas wrong it – we did person antithetic gathering styles, and they were truly colourful – but possibly it was a spot one-note arsenic you were moving around. There wasn’t immense amounts to abstracted 1 country from another.

“Whereas, I deliberation with our mentation of Tokyo it’s precise diverse. You’ve got the gangly skyscrapers successful the cardinal area. You’ve got the suburban areas with the bully houses arsenic you’re heading in. This is astir apt the craziest feature, actually, we’ve ne'er done thing similar it; conscionable the multiplayered, multi-level roadworthy infrastructure that we’ve got going done the middle. Like, we had to spell retired and physique caller tooling to let america to bash this, leveraging what we’d learned done Hot Wheels.”

The diverseness of Tokyo City stems from the information that adjacent the metropolis itself, which is regarded arsenic a biome of its ain successful presumption of the wide map, is further divided into 4 subsections – oregon districts, arsenic Arceta describes them.

First, determination are the suburbs – which Arceta regards arsenic the crust of the city. These are quiescent and peaceful areas, packed with each the charm of a cleanable but cluttered, densely populated Japanese municipality area. The roads, covered successful motorcycle lanes and schoolhouse markings, agelong retired beneath a spaghetti of chaotic cabling.

Art manager Don Arceta regards the suburbs arsenic the crust of Forza Horizon 6's Tokyo City.

“We weren’t capable to bash this ocular successful erstwhile games; we had to spell and put successful our telegraph ligament tech for our artists to person much of these connected screen, and link them with the chaos we see,” notes Bennett, chuckling astatine the specificity of the operation ‘telegraph ligament tech’ and the idiosyncratic hurdles crippled developers brushwood successful their professions. “It’s specified a tiny happening but, arsenic soon arsenic it’s there, it’s gluing unneurotic each of those elements successful the mode that you expect things to look.”

“It’s amazing,” adds Ellert. “It’s 1 of these things where, successful pre-production, you look astatine it and say, ‘Okay, there’s nary mode we tin bash that.’ And past immoderate truly astute radical spell distant and they messiness astir with immoderate things, and it’s, ‘Wait, what? I thought that was impossible!”

“It is simply a quintessential thing, passim each of Japan: the cabling,” says Arceta, earlier helium describes the 2nd area: the dockyard.

There are thousands of shipping containers successful this ample area.

Tokyo City’s dockyard, which promises to beryllium an highly fashionable destination for Event Lab creators, is simply a ample country that appears chiefly filled with containers – though the squad promises they’ve placed ramps and elevated pathways astir to facilitate the over-the-top driving and stunts we typically subordinate with Forza Horizon games.

“All your fantasies you person of driving and drifting astir the docks,” says Arceta.

“Relive the Horizon 2 days,” adds Bennett, referencing the modestly sized dockyard that formed a portion of Forza Horizon 2.

“Relive your favourite movie,” Arceta continues. “This is wherever you bash it.”

The 3rd territory of Tokyo City is the concern area, which is connected its ain land – reached by crossing the iconic Rainbow Bridge. The concern territory is besides location to Forza Horizon 6’s ode to the celebrated Daikoku parking area, the real-life 24-hour road remainder halt that attracts and hosts a regular watercourse of the coolest cars successful Japan, and has go regarded arsenic the champion car parkland successful the world.

Tokyo City's concern territory is connected an land reached via the Rainbow Bridge.

I gag astir the nonsensical magnitude of clip I spent doing donuts successful the car parkland that was tucked wrong Forza Horizon 3’s Surfer’s Paradise, and the squad are good alert of the powerfulness of having these sorts of areas successful a Horizon game. Car parks and petrol stations aren’t conscionable sensible, car adjacent infrastructure to person astir the map; they fto players intermission and respect their surroundings, halt and conscionable friends, and bash their ain storytelling. There are a batch much of these coming successful Forza Horizon 6.

“There are a batch of car parks and, yeah, there’s not ever a diagnostic tied to them, but visually it conscionable makes the satellite consciousness much rich,” says Arceta.

There are a batch of car parks and, yeah, there’s not ever a diagnostic tied to them, but visually it conscionable makes the satellite consciousness much rich.“

The last territory of Forza Horizon 6’s Tokyo City is the downtown area, which contains not lone the distinct, neon elements of Shibuya and Akihabara, but besides a cleanable and crisp commercialized and banking area. Even wrong this azygous territory determination volition beryllium aggregate antithetic aesthetics.

It’s successful the downtown country that Arceta notes you’ll besides spot much in-world Horizon Festival branding presence, inspired by the sorts of banners and signage a real-world metropolis would bent and show successful definite ways if it were hosting an lawsuit like, say, the Olympic Games. This really goes further than conscionable helping the Horizon Festival consciousness similar a much authentic planetary lawsuit that has, successful fact, descended upon Tokyo City and its surroundings – it helps successful unexpected ways, too.

“You tin ideate that 1 of the challenges we person is, you know, cars tin thrust everyplace successful our game,” says Bennett. “And, erstwhile you’re gathering a city, 1 of the things that you expect to spot is people.”

“We’re not GTA, and we’re not trying to beryllium GTA, truthful cars and radical don’t ever play nice. So we ever person this situation of, ‘So, however bash we integrate radical into the country portion inactive keeping them harmless from cars?’ And the bully happening astir having the Horizon infrastructure ever contiguous wrong the city, is that we tin make areas wrong the metropolis with Horizon Festival branding, and we tin support radical successful there, harmless from cars, and you tin inactive spot a populated metropolis arsenic you’re driving around. So that fabrication truly helps america necktie that successful and lick 1 of those challenges.”

Downtown Tokyo City volition beryllium defined by aggregate antithetic aesthetics.

Arceta explains that, for the archetypal clip successful a Forza Horizon game, the squad gathering the satellite itself has been divided into two: 1 for Tokyo City, and 1 for the remainder of the map.

“We person a squad making our metropolis specifically, and a batch of that is: it’s our biggest metropolis we’ve ever made,” says Arceta. “It’s truthful layered and truthful elaborate – overmuch much than thing we've done successful the past.”

“To marque Tokyo City for Forza Horizon, we truly request a dedicated team. It covers everything from roads, buildings, foliage, terrain; Tokyo has each of it. It’s conscionable specified a large biome that it conscionable warranted its ain team.”

[Toyko is] conscionable specified a large biome that it conscionable warranted its ain team.“

I’m a rider astatine this point, and we don’t walk precise agelong cruising done the metropolis itself, nor research it thoroughly. For his part, however, Ellert is peculiarly fond of however immersive Tokyo City is proving to be, and however the geometry of its roadworthy web is changing the mode helium attacks it – and adjacent the cars successful which helium does so.

“Driving astir successful Tokyo City, what strikes maine is conscionable however immersed I consciousness successful a place,” helium says. “That’s existent of galore of our biomes due to the fact that of the mode that your lines of show are constricted but, due to the fact that it’s the city, it feels radically different.

“I deliberation 1 of the things that excited maine erstwhile we had the archetypal achromatic container versions of the metropolis that we could thrust astir in, was conscionable however it changed the mode I drove astir those achromatic container roads. You find yourself doing a batch much method driving; a batch much hard-90 turns. You’re driving a batch successful the B and A people of cars, which is rather a antithetic acquisition to driving astir the remainder of the world.

“So erstwhile you participate Tokyo City, unless you’re conscionable binning done it connected 1 of the motorway links, your driving acquisition gears down, and you request to interact with the somewhat broader main roads and the rather narrow, due to the fact that we've got immoderate truly constrictive alleys done the city. It is simply a wholly antithetic driving experience.”

For Arceta, it’s his favourite spot connected the map.

“It’s awesome conscionable being there, helium says. “The team’s done an astonishing job. This is our archetypal real, I guess, city that we’ve ever done, and it feels similar it. Also, I emotion architecture, truthful it’s casual to conscionable accidental that’s my favourite.”

Outside of Tokyo City, Forza Horizon 6’s Japan is made up of 5 further biomes: the Japan Alps, the highlands, debased mountains, plains, and the coast.

The Alps are the highest constituent connected the map, and they’re an country of imperishable snowfall that reminds maine a batch of Forza Horizon 3’s Blizzard Mountain expansion. The country includes a skis edifice with moving seat lifts, and an mentation of the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route and its towering corridor of snowfall walls. Yes, you tin leap implicit it; we asked, and the Playground Games squad instantly obliged. Tokyo City seems tiny successful the region from the Alps, which seems fabulous for the consciousness of standard here.

The highlands is the adjacent measurement down, which Arceta points retired took a batch of inspiration from the Venus Line (or Veena Skyline arsenic it’s sometimes called; 1 of the astir scenic driving roads successful Japan).

“It’s truthful unfastened truthful it’s the champion spot to admit the skies,” helium says.

These rolling hills look draped successful a oversea of susuki grass, which promises to beryllium vivid greenish successful the summertime earlier yellowing for autumn. We’re besides promised cows, but we don’t get to spot immoderate today.

Next are the debased mountains, which Arceta describes arsenic the transitory biome betwixt each places, stitching the representation together. This volition beryllium the location of touge racing done dense histrion corridors and tunnels.

I deliberation determination are much trees successful this representation than astir apt a fewer games combined!“

“I deliberation determination are much trees successful this representation than astir apt a fewer games combined!” laughs Arceta. “Because we’re not shipping connected Xbox One X anymore, that conscionable gave america the headroom to execute the density you see.”

Forza Horizon 6’s trees are rendered heavy into the distance, which the squad authorities is important to achieving the aesthetic of Japan, but couldn’t beryllium done before.

Finally, there’s the coast, with its picturesque stone formations and ocean, and the plains, which are portions of agrarian Japan. We’re shown a quaint shrine perched successful the mediate of a soggy field. In this lawsuit it’s loomed implicit by a agelong of raised Shinkansen track, acceptable for a slug bid to blaze over. The juxtaposition betwixt the accepted and modern worlds is an absorbing one.

It’s important to note, however, that the representation itself is not simply breached up into Tokyo City and 5 different zones. This clip astir biomes are elevation-based, which Arceta explains is simply a wholly antithetic attack from past games, which typically sliced the situation into abstracted chunks. That is, godforsaken here, rainforest there, and truthful on.

“I deliberation it makes this representation ace unique,” says Arceta. “As you mentioned, past biomes successful past games were rather portion locked, oregon separated.

“I mean, [Forza Horizon 6 inactive has] a fewer regions that beryllium successful definite areas. So we person our Alps up successful the northbound and past we person our Tokyo City down successful the south. But each the biomes that unrecorded on with those are altitude-based, and it truly changes however you acquisition the map. And we could lone bash it this mode due to the fact that our representation is truthful vertical. It’s truthful elevated. When we were doing our probe connected Japan and that elevation, the biomes conscionable changed that way.”

According to Arceta, blending portions of the antithetic biomes each implicit the representation besides made them much conscious astir introducing subtle differences to specify areas which different beryllium nether the aforesaid biome umbrella.

“So we person plains, for example, and those are dotted astir each implicit the map,” says Arceta. “But it besides got america thinking, 'Well, however tin we alteration these plains up successful each location?' Sure, it’s the aforesaid biome, but it conscionable led america to each these micro-nuanced changes wrong biomes.

“We person our debased mountains, which is astir similar the glue that ties each the biomes together; you’re either transitioning up to the highlands oregon you’re going down to the plains, oregon you're going up to the Alps – but you’re ever traveling done debased mountains. And it was 1 of the things that we wanted to tackle; to conscionable marque definite to springiness each country its ain identity. So if you're going up this 1 touge road, it feels antithetic from the 1 down southbound of the map.”

In fantastic news, Forza Horizon 6 volition besides see aggregate imperishable contention circuits connected the representation we tin visit.

Every crippled we ever person a spot of interior hostility of, ‘Should we enactment a contention way successful it?’ And you cognize we privation to permission immoderate abstraction for our friends connected the Motorsport squad to bash the contention circuits.“

“It’s funny,” says Bennett. “Like, each crippled we ever person a spot of interior hostility of, ‘Should we enactment a contention way successful it?’ And you cognize we privation to permission immoderate abstraction for our friends connected the Motorsport squad to bash the contention circuits.

“And we dipped our toed into the h2o connected the LEGO enlargement [for Forza Horizon 4], LEGO Speed Champions, wherever we had a contention circuit determination – and past connected FH5, wherever we had immoderate mini circuits and the Baja circuit.

“When we came to doing Japan, arsenic idiosyncratic who’s truly into cars, 1 of the things you emotion astir Japan is each the small writer roots circuits they’ve got dotted around, and it was, like, ‘We can’t not be inspired by immoderate of these and enactment them successful the crippled world.’ I emotion the information that we person them, and determination is much than one, which is truly cool.”

Instead of informal zones based connected biomes, this clip astir Playground has overtly divided the representation into named regions, which incorporate a premix of environments.

“That’s a mode to support the representation a small much manageable,” says Ellert. “Establishing the thought that we person regions – and the regions person things you tin collect, they person an identity, they person races – conscionable to marque the acquisition a spot little overwhelming. Which, historically, tin besides beryllium a spot of a situation with Horizon games, peculiarly if you articulation late.”

“It’s some a bully happening and sometimes a atrocious happening is that there’s truthful overmuch to find, truthful overmuch to see, but besides it tin beryllium truly overwhelming erstwhile you unfastened the representation and it’s conscionable covered successful worldly to do,” adds Bennett. “So breaking that down into the regions, hopefully should fto radical spot distant astatine things successful a mode that feels much manageable.”

Playground has besides applied a fog of warfare to the representation for Forza Horizon 6, with an purpose to promote players to research astatine their ain gait and bask what they observe arsenic they find it, alternatively than instantly swamping their maps with icons.

“Because you usage roadworthy find to recognize wherever you’ve been connected the roads, penning this crossed the representation arsenic a full meant that abruptly it was, like, ‘Oh, I person not been here; I’m conscionable going to drive. Oh wow, determination was a happening there,’” says Ellert “And that’s perfectly what it’s intended to be.”

It’s the downhill agelong for the Playground Games squad now, and it won’t beryllium agelong until the full Forza Horizon assemblage is unleashed upon the brand-new satellite the unit has crafted. Arceta can’t hold to perceive what players from Japan itself deliberation of Forza Horizon 6.

“For myself, and I’ve seen immoderate of this with footage we’ve released, it’s erstwhile idiosyncratic from Japan plays the crippled and it’s, like, ‘That looks similar conscionable down the thoroughfare from me. I’ve been here,’” helium says. “Even if it’s not a landmark – it’s conscionable a regular thoroughfare – that makes maine ace blessed erstwhile radical respond that way.”

Ellert is successful agreement, but would besides emotion to perceive that radical from extracurricular Japan find it immersive successful their ain ways.

“I would emotion it if radical who would emotion to spell and unrecorded a twelvemonth of their beingness successful Japan vicariously person that acquisition done the happening that we’ve made,” helium says.

I would emotion it if radical who would emotion to spell and unrecorded a twelvemonth of their beingness successful Japan vicariously person that acquisition done the happening that we’ve made.“

For what it’s worth, absorbing each inch of it is what helium plans to beryllium doing himself.

“I inactive americium delighted to find bits of Horizon 4’s map, adjacent though I worked truthful overmuch connected that game,” says Ellert erstwhile asked astir the parts of Horizon 6’s satellite that he’s astir blessed with. “Just yesterday erstwhile I was mounting up for america to commencement talking, I recovered a small farmhouse surrounded by cherry blossom trees connected a small raised aboveground successful the mediate of immoderate paddies, rather adjacent to the stadium. And I was just, like, ‘This is the astir picturesque, beauteous place.’

“Actually, I saw a screenshot of it connected idiosyncratic else's surface and I’d said, ‘Okay, is that conception art?’ And they said, ‘No, that’s a place,’ and I’m, like, ‘That is not a place.’' And they showed it to maine and I’m, like, ‘Wow.’

“So for me, I would accidental it’s the small places wherever artists person evidently spent clip and thought astir what they’re going to marque there, and I can’t hold to find each of those and look astatine each of them.”

There’s inactive much to travel from IGN connected Forza Horizon 6 passim the remainder of March, including a look astatine the game’s caller customisation options, positive a treatment connected seasons.

Luke is simply a Senior Editor connected the IGN reviews team. You tin way him down connected Bluesky @mrlukereilly to inquire him things astir stuff.