Forza Motorsport Launching Without Multiple Features (Because Of Series S?)

Split screen and Xbox seem to not go well together these days…

I mean that's Halo Infinite, Baldur's Gate, and now Forza that are having issues with split screen.

BUT the Series S is apparently a large portion of Series sales, so you can't abandon it. So less features for games it is

Once again, MS still disappoints by not having Split-Screen but NOT having it for Halo: Infinite was the worst part as Split-Screen is a must feature in Halo. But seriously, MS really needs to get this Split-Screen feature figured out. It is starting to become an issue with more and more games and more worst on developers.

One last thing, and not a swipe but 343 could learn from Turn 10 regarding Split-Screen at least Turn 10 is trying though.

Split-screen? What is this 2008?

Devs aren't prioritizing split-screen because, quite frankly, this is 2023 and not 2002. Everyone has the internet. If you want to play with other people in your household, there's always GamePass streaming to any TV or monitor in your house. It simply isn't a sought-after feature anymore no matter how loud the vocal minority online cries about it.

Can we name a better duo than Xbox and, classic franchises losing features?

Spectator mode and racing against AI sound like odd ones to omit, though I imagine they could add these in later. That would have nothing to do with the XSS limiting it I'd imagine.

Split screen I don't too much care about, and I'd much rather devs get the most out of an local SP experience than to limit performance and visual fidelity over potentiality of split-screen play. That too may not be an XSS limiting factor as much as the devs trying to squeeze every bit of performance and visual fidelity out of the game overall to make the game a Series X|S graphics showcase.

I never really do Forza MP myself, I dabbled in some fun MP games designs in FH5 but never spent much time in them due to hackers spoiling it, plus horrible team balance issues when people leave matches early. But I have plenty of friend list drivatars for the main game (or whatever they're called). Many of FH online features I use seem more friend and community created events that don't necessarily need active MP participants, like special types of races, target times/scores, match rules like vehicle type, or play restrictions, etc.

I think perhaps with the upcoming Forza Motorsport being 9th gen console exclusive that possibly a new engine build made to take advantage of the Series X|S hardware and optimization features could play a part in creation and testing and troubleshooting the game's online modes and functionality, so maybe they couldn't get this ironed on on their original timeline due to substantial changes to their code.

The spectator mode and lack of MP AI suggests to me something limiting on the online functionality side of things.

Series S strikes again. What a delightful device.

Honestly who cares about split screen, I wonder what's the %?

That being said, Series S was always going to offer an experience inferior to the X, just released the game with two different versions.

They absolutely need to get split screen working in this game. Everyone knows how important split screen is in modern gaming. In fact, the majority of gamer play their games in split screen.😎

They said this hardware was specced for parity, but with dropped resolutions. If it's confirmed this is because of the S (has it been, though?), something's going to have to give.

6 years since FM7 and they still don't have the game feature complete for launch?

Almost as bad as Polyphony Digital.

Sony and these...

The Last of Us 2 and multiplayer

Uncharted Collection and multiplayer

GT and online events

Not sure what's going on, but this is small stuff. I will say MS goofed big time with the S.

@kathaariancode: I care about split-screen. And my opinion is the most important one... to me.

Well thankfully they aren’t features that I care about.

@Pedro: Alright. You got me. I just misplaced my pitchfork and didn’t feel like looking for it. 😅

@judaspete: For sure some do, I just wonder how significant that number is. Maybe higher than what I suppose.

90% of gamers want split screen. Everyone knows that, ask anybody.😎

Damn. Split screen and spectator mode? Yeah it's the S. They should have given the S the same amount of ram.

That would have been a good choice. They may consider it for their next console.😎

So no:

Split screen

No Spectator mode

No AI in multiplayer featured races (honestly not sure if that's a bad thing)

No drag races

No drift trials

Sounds like stuff that should have been ready after those delays.

Tell that to the outcry Halo: Infinite (same goes for 5) who wanted Split-Screen as its the main thing Halo is like for. It may not matter to you, but us Halo fans always respected Split-Screen.

@mesome713: exactly! Who cares about split screen?? Does anyone play local split screen in 2023? Who exactly is that target audience?

Microsoft is de-prioritizing splitscreen because the audience for those franchises (people who played them as kids in the 2000s) no longer have friends they can play with locally, they moved online with age. The real issue is that these franchises are not attracting younger players so that split screen can still be relevant.

It's not a technical issue, the Series S is not weaker than an N64.

@blaznwiipspman1: A ton of people, but not many that are old enough to have been on Gamespot since 2007.

Meanwhile Quake 2. A $10 game on gamepass supports 8 players split screen.

Just here to say.

That's badass

Quake 2 is an old ass game.

Minimum system requirements:

CPU:Pentium® 90 MHz processor or higher or Athlon® processor RAM:16MB RAM required for Windows 95/98, 24MB required for all other supported operating systems OS:A 100% Windows 95/98/ME/NT 4.0/2000-compatible computer system (including compatible 32-bit drivers for CD-ROM drive , video card, sound card and input devices)STO:25MB of uncompressed hard disk space for game files (Minimum Install), plus 45MB for the Windows swap file Sound:100% Sound Blaster-compatible sound card ODD:Quad-speed CD-ROM drive (600 K/sec. sustained transfer rate)NET:Supports network and Internet play via IPX and TCP/IP

Recommended system requirements:

CPU:Pentium® 133 MHz processor or higher or Athlon® processor RAM:16MB RAM required for Windows 95/98, 24MB required for all other supported operating systems OS:A 100% Windows 95/98/ME/NT 4.0/2000-compatible computer system (including compatible 32-bit drivers for CD-ROM drive , video card, sound card and input devices)STO:25MB of uncompressed hard disk space for game files (Minimum Install), plus 45MB for the Windows swap fileSound:100% Sound Blaster-compatible sound cardODD:Quad-speed CD-ROM drive (600 K/sec. sustained transfer rate)NET:Supports network and Internet play via IPX and TCP/IP

@Pedro: yeah I wasn't trying to make any point or comparison.

Just here to say.

Quake 2 remaster supporting 8 player split screen is badass.

Pretty lame.

@davillain: Yeah, but I would love to know the numbers. With gamers it's difficult to know if the outcry it's genuine, just complaining for the sake of complaining, or even nostalgia.

With Forza my whole split screen experience was 1h playing with my now wife 10 years ago. And I don't know personally anyone that plays split screen.

But might be me that's out of touch. Anyway it's not great that they're annoying yet another troubled release. Although I won't notice any of the issues.

@davillain: Yeah, but I would love to know the numbers. With gamers it's difficult to know if the outcry it's genuine, just complaining for the sake of complaining, or even nostalgia.

With Forza my whole split screen experience was 1h playing with my now wife 10 years ago. And I don't know personally anyone that plays split screen.

But might be me that's out of touch. Anyway it's not great that they're announcing yet another troubled release. Although I won't notice any of the issues.

MS' first party has been weak since the kinect days. Can't even ship a normal forza game anymore. Wonder if the microtransactions and car dlcs made it in.

That dev explains at the end of that video why spiltscreen is not in the new forza at launch. He says it's because of the graphical features they are pushing and the new rendering engine. If I am correct it's the opposite issue of BG3 where the features and the engine they are using are making spiltscreen difficult to implement on likely both the S/X. The issue with BG3 was that it was rendering the world multiple times in spiltscreen and people could go whereever they wanted. In forza you don't have to deal with that since all players would likely be racing on a track where their isn't a huge distance between everyone, but the rendering engine and the graphical features might not make spiltscreen feasible for forza.

TLDR: They probably didn't have enough time to focus on these features while developing the new Forza.

@freedomfreak: I think they said car rosters will be updated. I don’t know if microtransactions will be there at launch but if history is anything to go by, they’ll be patched in at some point.

Guess I'm in the minority for split screen play here. I grew up playing 4 player split screen on a 27" CRT TV. I now have a 75", with a much higher resolution. Of any time in my life to use split screen, it'd be now. Talking over a microphone with your friends isn't my thing either. I guess ideally, having 2 laptops in the same room was great. But not everyone has that option. I hope more games use split screen, like It Takes Two did. I wish 3D tvs still existed. I use to play CoD on a 55" 2 player but each of us used the full screen using 2 different pairs of glasses. Seemed like a cool feature.

@joshrmeyer: Definitely not the minority

Thanks for the response

@super600

I've not watched the video, but, as far as Forza is concerned, that sounds plausible. i.e. it's a delay because they were simply behind schedule, same as with Sony's latest hints about their upcoming batch of first party delays. Platform holders have a habit of getting unreasonably optimistic about their own products' dev cycles till crunch time.

For Baldur's Gate 3, though, this should be a bit more worrying to MS. It's hard to swallow the suggestion PlayStation's architecture is so radically different that PS5 should represent an absolute hardware cutoff point. I mean it's not like BG3 is barely running in split-screen on PS5, right? It's doing so comfortably, from what I've understood.

Now, I could buy the idea that certain design decisions Larian made might lie on a development fault line between X and PS5, but then there's the question of why MS has allowed themselves to get shut out of the dialogue like that again. Is it a question of inferior development tools? Maybe they're just not "liaising with devs" appropriately? If parity is not a major issue at a hardware level, and it boils down to either of those explanations, then there's still potentially a way to resolve the problems they've been having the last decade.

If it's not about developer-platform relations though, MS needs to think hard about their parity clause for S. If they're insistent, there are strategies they could mitigate the issue with, but a pretty-on-paper Activision acquisition isn't going to do that alone.

I remember people arguing about the S and saying it wouldn't hold anything back. It was about 50/50 back then. Which team were you then, and what team are you on now?

From what I recall, I voiced doubts about S's specs - specifically the memory. But wtf do I know about hardware, lol.

I can see how split-screen could be an exceptional case, but you just assume that's been thought through.

MS to release a game in a barebones state again?

Have they still not learned to give their devs enough time to finish their games, even after the failure of Halo: Infinite and Redfall?

I understand that the Series S is forcing them to compromise, but still, this doesn't look good against GT7 being released in a finished state with all features, still supported with new cars and tracks (really like the ambulance, haha), and even featuring VR mode.

@st_monica: “barebones”? :-S it’s missing only a few features. And Turn 10 is not 343, they’ll get it done.

MS doesn’t rush games anymore. 343 had more than enough time, it was getting silly, MS can’t keep throwing money at it. 343 needs to be shut down completely.

Zenimax forced a dev to work on a game they don’t know how to do or have any interest in. No amount of time was going to make Redfall good.

@st_monica: Can you explain what makes the game barebones?

@Pedro: Well, I'm the one asking questions based on the lack of features available in past games and other racing games at launch, such as:

Well, doesn't it seem to you that the lack of these features that are available in previous games and other racing games that are important to some people makes it relatively "barebornes" compared to other racing games?

Anyway, my point is why MS won't release the game in a finished state at launch and what MS has learned from their past mistakes is all.

Any racing simulator that is missing these features is bare-bones?

@Pedro: Again, I'm the one asking the question. Learn to read, Pedro.

What is up with MS releasing unfinished games . First it was halo inf, then Redfall and now this ?