Turn 10 & Playground Games' E3 absence explained: "given time" for new projects

E3 2019 saw an impressive showing from Microsoft’s Xbox team, but it was clear that the company is already focusing heavily on their next-gen offerings. There was one noticeable absence from their showing: Forza developers Turn 10 and Playground Games.

While Playground did announce a DLC expansion for last year’s Forza Horizon 4, their long-rumoured Fable 4 announcement was absent from the showing, so too was Turn 10’s Forza Motorsport 8.

With both developers taking a bi-yearly development structure for their games, the Forza series has been in need of a break. This year, it’s been given one, with both developers being given time to work on bigger projects.

In an interview with Kotaku, Head of Xbox Phil Spencer talked about the developers’ absence.

“Where was Turn 10? Where was Playground’s second team?” Spencer said. “In the case of Forza, I want the team, just like we did with 343. We gave them time – we did, what four Halos in four years? – giving them an opportunity to really think and have a creative impact when they launch.”

“Turn 10 is similar. I want to give them time to think through their plans. I love what they do with Motorsport, but you’ve got to be able to listen to your studios when they need time and they want to focus on more things. And, as you have more content, you’re able to do that.”

With Xbox’s first-party offerings being rather underwhelming this generation, the platform has heavily relied on their yearly Forza offerings. In just one generation we’ve seen six titles between both Motorsport and Horizon, if you include the Fast and Furious spin-off.