I think the biggest issue with Forza is I do not believe that the leaders are avid racing game players. I don’t think they’d play Forza if they didn’t work for T10. I don’t think they’d participate in leagues with other players. I think the game is just a job for them. If they left the company, I do not believe they would continue to play the game.
I do not think the senior leaders are passionate, active Forza players because if they were, the bugs that exist in this game wouldn’t be there. If they were playing this game in an internal league with others at work, they’d have found and fixed the issues we are now having.
There is no way, Chris or Dan have the time to level up cars. They likely tried it once, and that was it. If they loved the game and played it as much as we wanted to, they’d have taken that feature out.
My honest opinion is that Chris Esaki doesn’t understand the car world or car community, Dan Greenawalt on the other hand does and trust me because Forza Motorsport 4 Dan Greenawalt was in charge of it and it was pure passion from the trailer " endangered species" to top gear track and the presenters themselves. Forza vista with incredible detail on a Xbox 360. We could change cenario of the home screen Wich was awesome. To the drift Japan track and many more other great things.
I don’t think Chris Ezaki was Ready for such a Big role in making a Game of such high expectations & a franchise that has been going for over a Decade I have loads of ideas for the game as well as others in the community but it would be easier just to be there in person I’m very passionate about gaming & forza motorsport I’ve Never Felt so Let down by Microsoft & T10 in Redmond I have lost alot of Trust & in leadership for the Motorsport Franchise I’ve always been interested in game development & problem solving I have no experience but i learn by watching others sorry for the long reply
I don’t think, though, that Dan is playing the game every day. I don’t think he’d be an active online racer if he moved on to another product because although I agree he loves cars and racing, I just don’t think he has the time to play it enough to truly understand our pain.
I don’t think they play it even though they do work there.
…I don’t see how anyone who has played any major racing game in the last decade could have looked at this before launch and been genuinely convinced it would be successful.
They had years to pour whatever “passion” they had into this, and this is what we got.
That well of “passion” dried up a long time ago.
It’s time to hand over the reins.
I agree with you fully. I’ve posted on another thread how the previous games were made for car lovers by car lovers. You could feel the passion of the devs in the games.
Unfortunately the games now feel like a product that needs to be pushed out. There is a very sad feeling that the devs working on the game now have been hired to make a product and not for their car knowledge or passion.
A little off topic but didn’t Dan get a Ford GT after FM6?
This series has been going downhill since FH3 came out, and FM7 after was even worse. I don’t remember when Chris Esaki came on the scene, but FM7 was a bust, compared to 5 and 6.
Chris isn’t a car guy, so you’re right. I’ve expressed this before that this isn’t a “car game by car people for car people”. He has no experience working with car games.
Your logic is correct though, it’s definitely not a game made by people who are versed in car culture. Esaki is known for Gears of War which is a totally different skill set than racing. Assetto Corsa 2 is going to change the game again mark my words. It’ll be like Honda going from the last gen Civic Type R to the new one. Every gear head was put on notice with the first iteration (stateside), now I bet they took everything that was good and improved upon it. The reviews it’s going to get are going to be crazy.
A sim racer that’s never raced in real life finally raced in real life and he said the physics of AC felt more real than iRacing….
I had to stop myself. This used to be the attitude people had when Forza Motorsport 4 came out. Everyone was raving about it. I came from GT5 just to play, and I’ve been a fan ever since. Top Gear was still at it’s peak, and Forza being so good after FM3 partnered with them for FM4 and I just remember the game drawing me in from the jump.
I feel with all of the YouTubers out there now with wheel setups that everyone is going to rave about Assetto Corsa 2, and that will be the nail in the coffin for these “Quarterly Updates”. All I know is that there is a void in the racing gaming space, and all Assetto Corsa has to do is deliver the same game with an updated car list to take it. They have a more rewarding hardcore difficulty approach to racing, and that’s enough for me to make room for a rig and spend my free time there instead of grinding for cars.
The only way I see Forza coming back is if they stop trying to appease casuals, and force them to learn how to drive like they used to do. That and fix the sound. This has to come AFTER they make FM ‘23 a playable bug free game with more QOL features then they can shift their focus towards the next game.
Of course firing everyone that isn’t a car guy, and creating a car guy atmosphere is a must.
TLDR; Your logic is correct, Chris Esaki is known for Gears of War. It won’t be long before T10 restructures like PGG did with FH. Creating a car guy atmosphere like FM4 did is going to be the only way to save Forza.
You know there was probably a healthy amount of car people there when they’re keeping a tally of speeding tickets during the development of the game I’ll probably skim through the credits of FM2 onwards and see if there’s any other easter eggs lying around
EDIT: The development of Forza Motorsport 2 also saw 41 speeding tickets… And 2 revoked licenses!
I don’t think the entire staff needs to be die-hard petrol-heads,
but if they’re gonna work at a game studio that develops racing games,
they should at least be able to read the room and create something that appeals to that audience.
…This installment reeks of having no love for racing games.
If i had a dollar for every time someone disgruntled with a particular game said something to the effect of “once Game Y comes out, that’s going to be the death of Game X”, I’d probably have enough money to buy Turn 10 studios and oversee the game’s redevelopment myself.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of Kunos’ work and AC/ACC in general, but I think if we’ve learned anything from FM 23, it should be to not buy tickets for the hype train until it’s actually pulled into the station and we can see the cargo.
Guess what. I’ve had ZERO speeding tickets in the last 20 years, yet I’ve spent thousands and thousands of hours racing online in FM and FH and am a very experienced software developer passionate about this game (which might move onto AC 2)
Being a CAR person is different from being an online racing gamer. That is a HUGE difference.
PS My 19 and 22 year old sons don’t have driver’s licenses yet like racing sometimes in FH and FM. They’d enjoy it more if it was a bit easier if the base tunes worked better and they knew they could race against fair competition that didn’t ram them. They’ve said so.
Yupp! I’ll be waiting for the reviews, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they took everything they did, and improved on it. There’s no fancy marketing campaign like T10 had, just a release window. I don’t think they’re going to fix anything that doesn’t need fixing. Being a full sim, they don’t have to cater to casuals. AC already has features that I like, one being rev matching. That alone is enough to switch. That and the fact that it feels more like real life than iRacing according to a sim racer who learned to race in real life.
Forza doesn’t care about it’s simulation community, so my eye is on that space.
I’ll probably skim through the credits of FM2 onwards and see if there’s any other easter eggs lying around