I haven’t seen or even heard his name mentioned in A long while, What ever happened to Turn 10 Studios Creative Director Dan Greenwalt???
Bump.
I raised an eyebrow when I saw that Chris was the creative director and not Dan. Did he get promoted? Demoted? DId he quit?
If you look at the credits for FM7, you’ll see Dan Greenawalt in the Turn 10 Studios section as “Studio Creative Director” followed by the Forza Motorsport section with Bill Giese listed as the game’s “Creative Director.” I think the pattern has been that Dan takes the umbrella role over all titles, and then there’s a specific person leading specific titles.
In the July Forza Monthly livestream, Chris was introduced as the “Forza Motorsport Creative Director.” Earlier this summer/spring, Dan was introduced during the Gamestack Live event as “Creative Director of the Forza Racing Franchise” and in the July announcement article:
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He’s the Creative Director for the Forza franchise, so all Forza projects. So a promotion from his earlier roles. I miss seeing him in the press tours though, he was a great ambassador for racing games. He still is, we just see him less.
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Hey heyy, I was wondering the same thing. Always enjoyed how he used to enthusiastically chime in about the next Forza game. He’s good at marketing, that’s for sure. I even added him - Nebuchadnezzar - or something like that. But he never replies, baahahah!
Found some new Dan content! How Forza Uses Neural Networks To Evolve Its Racing AI | War Stories | Ars Technica: How Forza's Racing AI Uses Neural Networks To Evolve | War Stories | Ars Technica - YouTube
I always felt that Dan was more concerned with the car collecting aspects of Forza than the actual racing experience. I eventually really tired of the way he presented the games, especially as I couldn’t just brush off his explanation for silly compromises as a marketing guy that was just playing the hand he was dealt. He was instrumental in making choices that the community railed against, and simply had to deal with gaming journalists with flash cards and little to no experience or interest in the possibilities that existed for sim racing. I’m more than happy to have new senior leadership, because it gives the possibility that there is a new vision steering this particular ship. I don’t know much about the new person/people, they may be just as if not more focused on the casual, cars-as-toys mindset, but I have my fingers crossed that they are using the explosion in PC sim popularity during the pandemic to justify some big swings.
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+1
However, though Dan is no Stefano Casillo, at least he’s way better than Ian Bell.
I could’ve mentioned Yamauchi but the whole Gran Turismo vibe of “we are so refined, so elite” puts me off.