What you need to know
- Forza Motorsport (2023) is landing later this year on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, Xbox and PC Game Pass, and Xbox Cloud Gaming.
- On Thursday, Turn10 Studios and Xbox Game Studios released a new trailer focused on the upcoming game’s accessibility features.
- The studio has heavily invested in making Forza Motorsport (2023) the most accessible Forza game ever made.
- The simulation racer’s accessibility features include Blind Driving Assists for blind or low vision players, one touch driving for low mobility players, and much more.
Accessibility’s importance in video games cannot be understated, as it allows more people to experience the joy of gaming, and makes our favorite games better for everyone. Fortunately, it seems Turn10 Studios, the developer behind the Forza Motorsport franchise, got the memo and is continuing the investments Xbox has made in the space.
On Thursday, Turn10 Studios (via Xbox Wire (opens in new tab)) detailed the work they’ve put in to make Forza Motorsport (2023) the most accessible and approachable entry in the entire Forza Motorsport franchise. A new trailer dropped alongside this announcement, showcasing one of the game’s headlining accessibility features: Blind Driving Assists.
A first in the simulation racing genre, Blind Driving Assists is a vast collection of configurable, dynamic audio cues that can assist blind and low to no vision people with playing Forza Motorsport (2023). The supplemental audio cues include information about the track and upcoming turns and obstacles, information about your car and its status, and even advice on the necessary amounts of deceleration, shifting, and more.
This is not a separate mode, but rather optional features that are built directly on top of the game in its entirety, so players who maybe have never experienced a racing game before can play Forza Motorsport (2023) exactly as its intended. Turn10 Studios notes that this means there is a learning curve to learning how to play with these assists. Fortunately, the Blind Driving Assists accessibility menu provides detailed, audible descriptions of every setting and a preview of every audio cue, so that players can familiarize themselves with everything they might hear before taking it to the track.
The feature was made in coordination with accessibility consultant Brandon Cole and other members of the Gaming & Disability community over two years of work, and it’s just one aspect of Forza Motorsport (2023)’s accessibility features. Some other accessibility features include:
- One touch driving. Another set of accessibility features will allow low mobility players to fully customize their driving experience with a variety of assists like automatic shifting, enhanced steering and breaking assists, and much more. These features are aimed to help players who may struggle with multiple simultaneous button presses, extended button pressing, gripping a controller, and more.
- Screen narration and dynamic audio descriptions. Players can enable features that turn on-screen text and UI elements into audible descriptions, with added features to customize this experience and the information presented. In-game cinematics will also have dynamic audio descriptions based on the weather, time of day, and more in-game.
- Text-to-speech & speech-to-text. For multiplayer communication, players can either choose to convert written text into a synthesized speech for other players, or convert their speech into text format.
- Colorblindness modes. Forza Motorsport (2023) will feature colorblindness modes for both the UI and the in-game world.
- Full controller remapping. A standard accessibility feature, Forza Motorsport (2023) will offer in-depth settings to customize your control schemes to your heart’s content, which extends into the one touch driving settings detailed above.
- Subtitles, text scaling, and contrast settings. Subtitles will translate all in-game audio, while various settings will let you customize the size and background of subtitles, size of in-game text, and the contrast of UI and HUD.
- Granular audio customization. Players will have individual sliders for various aspects of Forza Motorsport (2023)’s in-game audio, which can be tweaked independently of each other.
Forza Motorsport (2023) has all the ingredients it needs to be the best Xbox racing game you can play, as well as the most technically advanced, visually impressive, and accessible entry in the franchise. Forza Motorsport (2023) officially releases on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, Xbox and PC Game Pass, and Xbox Cloud Gaming later this year.
Windows Central’s take
I’m a huge advocate for superior accessibility and approachability in video games, so I love seeing this kind of news come out of Xbox Game Studios. Forza Horizon 5 was already impressive in its accessibility and inclusivity, but it seems that Turn10 Studios may be going even beyond that with Forza Motorsport (2023). Investing so much time and effort into making its upcoming, AAA simulation racing game accessible to blind and low vision players — many of whom may have never driven a car or played a racing game — is just awesome to see.
I have high hopes for Forza Motorsport (2023), and I hope that it’s able to deliver on all its ambitions to be the most technically advanced, visually impressive, and accessible Forza Motorsport game ever made. It’s undeniably exciting, but Turn10 Studios will really have to best everything it has ever done to pull it off.
The latest Forza Motorsport title is the most ambitious yet, and it’s landing in every tier of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate from day one. Embark on an epic racing journey on Xbox, Windows PC, and the cloud with Forza Motorsport (2023).
