Forza Motorsport’s Multiplayer Looks Awesome, But Split-Screen Didn’t Make The Cut

The most recent episode of Forza Monthly gave us a deep dive into the multiplayer features of the upcoming Forza Motorsport reboot, and everything we’re seeing looks great so far – aside from the lack of split-screen support.

As detailed on the official Forza website, the development team has “invested more in the multiplayer experience than in any other aspect of the game” this time around. This is highlighted by Featured Multiplayer, which is a “live, real-world time-based mode of pre-defined live events” in which every event will have an official start time, complete with open practices and qualifying rounds.

Featured Multiplayer will be split into two different types of events, which are as follows:

Spec Series

“Spec racing is fully homologated to ensure an even playing field. That means all the cars racing are identical and have been tuned by us to provide the fairest and most competitive experience possible.”

Open Series

“Open Series is where you can bring any car that meets the class restrictions. This series is about bringing your mild to wild creations to the competition and you’ll never know what is going to be on the track with you. The Open Series will be rotating through the various car classes on a weekly basis.”

Featured Multiplayer will include a variety of pitting features as well, while the Forza Race Regulations have been “massively overhauled” and matchmaking will be based around each racer’s Driver & Safety Rating.

Alongside Featured Multiplayer, you’ll also be able to customise all sorts of options in Private Multiplayer and benefit from the game’s progression system while playing online. The cost of acquiring cars has been drastically reduced too!

Despite how great everything looks and sounds, there’s a bit of a disappointment in terms of the lack of split-screen support in the game. This is due to some big changes behind the scenes, as explained during the stream:

“Our heavy investment in pushing our new graphical features and our complete overhaul of the rendering engine unfortunately made split-screen really difficult to implement, and it’s not going to be in for launch.”

It’s definitely a shame to be missing out on split-screen, but we have to say that everything else is looking fantastic to us so far! Featured Multiplayer in particular sounds like a great new addition to the series based on these early details.

We don’t have long to wait until we can try it for ourselves, with the Xbox console exclusive officially releasing on Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC and Xbox Cloud Gaming (via Xbox Game Pass) on October 10th, 2023.