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Forza Horizon 6 takes the racing series to Japan, pairing familiar high-speed driving with a new setting shaped by city streets, mountain routes and local racing culture. In an early hands-on preview, the opening campaign events and free exploration offered a first look at the map, vehicles and activities. The build showed promise, though the full game’s scale and variety will be clearer at launch.
Forza Horizon 6 brings the Horizon Festival to Japan
The driving feels consistent with the strongest entries in the series: responsive controls, convincing surface effects and a strong sense of speed. Japan gives those familiar mechanics a fresh backdrop, and the preview begins with an introductory sequence called the Initial Drive.
Unlike the more extravagant opening of Forza Horizon 5, this sequence takes a comparatively grounded approach. Players switch between several cars and routes, getting a cinematic introduction to the scenery and the Horizon Festival. The festival remains central to the story, but its presentation reflects the scale and organization of a major event in Japan.
Art director Don Arceta explained that the team approached the festival as an international gathering centered on cars and music. In the Japanese setting, that meant building details such as road barriers, a central festival site, sponsors, marshals and volunteers into the world. These elements help make the opening feel connected to its location.
Japanese roads, local races and varied scenery
In the early campaign, the player character learns that a friend has entered them in qualifying races. Alongside official festival events, the game includes Grassroots Circuits: time-attack challenges inspired by local racing groups. Arceta said research into these circuits also helped the team think about which environments and road types to include.
Practical tip: Try different routes and event types during exploration. The preview suggests that the map’s roads are designed to support more than one style of driving, from timed circuits to mountain routes.
In the preview build, Tokyo appeared to be the only major metropolitan area. The playable map extended around Kawazu Nanadaru and the Hakone Nanamagari drifting course, located a few hours south of Tokyo by real-world driving time. Osaka and Kyoto did not appear in the build, so their inclusion should not be assumed based on this preview.
Tokyo itself was necessarily more compact than the real city, but recognizable areas such as Shibuya and Minato featured in the recreation. Beyond the city, the preview included Touge roads and the Tateyama Snow Corridor in the Japanese Alps. Together, these locations showed a range of settings, although the final map’s full extent was not available to explore.
Preview cars and campaign activities
The hands-on build provided three cars for different events. The 1989 Nissan Silvia K’s was suited to street racing, while the 1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205 took on a rally event. A 1970 GMC Jimmy was available for an off-road qualifier. The game’s box art features the 2025 Toyota GR GT prototype, pointing to another vehicle players can expect to see in the game.
During the preview, activities included qualifying races and public-relations challenges such as Speed Traps, Drift Zones and Danger Sign jumps. Collectibles were also scattered around the map, including XP bonus boards and mascots that players can drive through. These offer optional goals for anyone who wants to explore between races.
Design director Torben Ellert described the preview as the Qualifier Phase, which leads into the festival. It includes street races, Touge races and Touge battles. Ellert also explained that the campaign separates more structured festival events from open-world street races. Festival events can have set sequences and car restrictions, while street races discovered during exploration allow players to bring different vehicles, with the opposing grid adjusting to match.
What this Forza Horizon 6 preview reveals
The preview offered only a few hours of driving, leaving much of the map and its activities unseen. Its mix of Japanese scenery, varied road types and event formats provides an encouraging first impression, but it is too early to judge the complete campaign or the full range of content.
Forza Horizon 6 is scheduled to launch on May 19. The most useful takeaway for players weighing up the early preview is that the game aims to balance structured festival progression with flexible exploration and racing. The final experience will determine how well that balance works across the full map.
