Forza Motorsports Coming to PC As Free-to-Play Game

Forza Motorsports has long been a staple on the Xbox – going all the way from the original to the 360 to the Xbox One.

But now, the series is coming to Windows 10 PCs: Microsoft recently announced that it’s bringing yet another one of its big Xbox franchises to Windows 10 PCs.

At a showcase in San Francisco last week, the company unveiled Forza Motorsports 6: Apex.

This game is a little different than most Forza titles. Microsoft is calling the game a “curated and focused” instalment in the popular racing series.

The game is also free for Windows 10 users to play.

Created in Microsoft’s Universal Windows Platform (UWP)

Another interesting thing about the new Forza Motorsports: Apex is that it was created in Microsoft’s new development platform, the Universal Windows Platform or UWP.

That platform means the game can be installed on both the PC and Xbox One (in the future).

Other features in the game include:

-60 cars

-A range of new race modes

-Showcase Tour mode, which includes 12 events based around specific motorsports stories (including one story where Ferrari goes against Lamborghini on the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps where the winner is chosen as the ultimate Italian racecar)

-Free race mode for taking out any car on any of the six available environments

-Pre-race customization options and other features, including assists, tuner set-up, and practice options

Players will race in events to complete objects in order to earn race points. Those race points will turn into medals, which can then be used to unlock cars.

Forza 6’s developer, Turn 10 Studios, debunked the notion that you would have to pay to unlock certain cars: they say that all cars will be unlockable through gameplay.

The developer did not rule out, however, that gamers willing to pay for better cars could pay to upgrade them right away.

It’s a “Technological Showcase”, Not a Commercial Game

Forza 6 isn’t designed to be the next best racing game of the decade. Instead, Apex is designed to be a technological showcase and not a commercial venture.

Creative director Dan Greenawalt said the following in an interview with The Guardian:

“This wasn’t developed with a business objective. We started with technology and a roadmap of where we wanted to go with the franchise – which is Motorsport, Horizon and all Forzas on the Xbox and the PC. It was something we knew we had to do. Then it became a partnership with the internal teams at Microsoft, but it was still not a product. The Forza Tech engine is now DirectX 12 and UWP, so Apex is just the start – that puts less pressure on Apex being hugely self-sustaining.”

In other words, Turn 10 Studios wanted to show that developing a great game on UWP was indeed possible. They don’t care whether it makes money or not.

This could pave the way for future PC and Xbox One games to share development resources across a common platform: which means better games for everybody.

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Forza,Microsoft,PC Gaming