Forza Horizon 5 has launched today for Premium Edition users and has already been a massive success for Xbox in terms of critical reception with a score of over 90 on Metacritic. For Xbox fans that have the subscription service Game Pass, they’ll be able to play the Forza Horizon 5 on November 9 with no additional charge as well. With the highly anticipated Halo Infinite coming out just next month, it looks like AAA exclusives have finally arrived for the new generation of Xbox.
When it comes to large tentpole games, Xbox Executive Matt Booty shared that he felt as though Xbox has been behind PlayStation in that area. It’s a sentiment that many fans have also echoed on various social media platforms as PlayStation has released a fair amount of AAA titles just during the first year of PlayStation 5’s launch such as Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, Returnal, and Deathloop.
With the release of Microsoft Flight Simulator, Forza Horizon 5, and Halo Infinite just next month, it looks as though Xbox has finally started to find its footing. Shuhei Yoshida, an executive for PlayStation has taken to Twitter to congratulate Phil Spencer on the launch of Forza Horizon 5, sharing that he’ll visit Mexico (in-game) soon. The tweet is short and sweet but highlights how the idea of console wars doesn’t exist for executives.
When it comes to which current-gen console is better, the discourse online has been rather contentious with many fans pointing out small flaws in each other’s games such as the reuse of the rowing mechanic in God of War: Ragnarok. Most of the discourse has been around Xbox’s lack of exclusive titles, but it looks as though Forza Horizon 5 and Halo Infinite might change that.
Forza Horizon 5 is a title that has even impressed players that aren’t traditionally into racing games. Since Forza Horizon 5 will also release Game Pass on November 9, players that weren’t entirely sure about the title will now be able to try it out and see if it’s something they might enjoy. Game Pass is a massive subscription service that opens up the doors for many players to expand their taste in games.
Additionally, next month sees the launch of the highly anticipated title, Halo Infinite that had a technical preview back in September. Although it remains to be seen how well Halo Infinite’s campaign fares, the reception for the multiplayer was very positive which bodes well for the AAA release. With just a month away, if Halo Infinite does as well critically as Forza Horizon 5, players that haven’t picked up an Xbox console might start to consider getting one as the future of Xbox is looking bright.
Forza Horizon 5 launches November 9 for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S