Official: Forza Motorsport 5 to debut on new Xbox One (first trailer video)

The folks at Microsoft introduced the next generation of the Xbox console and one of the first titles coming to Xbox One is Forza Motorsport 5 – a driving simulator that will most likely set the standard against which all other driving games are compared.

It has long been rumored that Forza Motorsport 5 was in the design phase but with today’s big online debut of the Xbox One (formerly expected to be called the Xbox 720), it is official…Forza 5 is on the way. Very little information has been offered up with the introduction of the Xbox One and the coinciding announcement of Forza Motorsport 5 but game-maker Turn 10 Studios has promised more information on Forza 5 at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in June so it won’t be too long of a wait before we know a great deal more about the next-generation Xbox and the newest installation of the Forza Motorsport series. This includes the launch date of the new Xbox One and since Forza Motorsport 5 is slated to be available at the same time as the launch of the new console – E3 could reveal when the new Forza will hit retail stores around the world with the new Xbox One.

As is the case with any announcement of an upcoming game, the official proclamation of the next generation of the fabled Forza Motorsport racing simulator series comes with a short video trailer showing a fair amount of game footage. As you can see in the video at the bottom of this article, Forza Motorsport 5 looks absolutely incredible in every way with graphics that appear to be better than anything that we have seen from any driving game ever. From the racing footage to the gratuitous close up slow motion shots to the background scenery, Forza 5 looks like it is going to be absolutely amazing in every way. By the way, don’t pass judgment on Forza 5 based on our grainy screenshot captured from the teaser video – watch the full video to see just what I am talking about.

The video shows the McLaren F1 battling side by side with the new McLaren P1 in brilliant fashion right down to the dust and smoke created by these high-performance British supercars sliding through the course in the video. While Forza Motorsport 5 will follow more traditional storylines than the recent Forza Horizon so that means we can expect plenty of closed-circuit racecourses around the world (just like Forza Motorsport 1 through 4) while Horizon takes place on public roads in Colorado. The first trailer showing the two McLaren’s racing to the finish line also features a television-style announcer that may or may not be included in the actual gameplay. While games like the Madden series have featured a voiceover announcer, Forza has not had an announcer so while this could have been added for effect in the first trailer – this could also be a new feature coming to Forza Motorsport 5.

Turn 10 went way out of their own box with Forza Horizon, introducing Forza-first features like open-world racing, night-time racing and a variety of different road surfaces. While Forza Motorsport 5 is a closed-circuit driving simulator where Horizon is more of a “need for speed” style arcade racer, it will be interesting to see if the folks at Turn 10 use any of those new features from Horizon to make FM5 even more realistic.

There has been no launch information provided for Xbox One or Forza Motorsport 5 but we would most certainly expect that both the new console and the new driving simulator will hit American retail outlets in time for Christmas 2013.