Is ‘Forza Horizon 2′ In The Works?

Offering Forza fans another game in between the core numbered installments, Turn 10 Studios worked with Playground Games to develop Forza Horizon, a title that felt happily reminiscent of the more arcade-style Burnout games. With Forza 5coming as a key Microsoft launch title for the Xbox One – and one of the first games embracing the Xbox Cloud – could Forza Horizon 2 be the next game to follow?

According to details found on a vehicle technical artist’s LinkedIn page, Forza Horizon developer Playground Games might be working on a next-gen installment to the racing sim franchise.

Playground Games employee Yibo Liu explained on his LinkedIn profile that he has been “working as the only technical artist in the vehicle art team for an undisclosed next-gen Forza project.” Liu has recently amended his work experience and replaced the mention of Forza with “an undisclosed Xbox One project.” Oops!

2012’s Forza Horizon was the first installment in the Forza Motorsport franchise to be developed outside of Turn 10 Studios. The carnival-themed spinoff, which introduced the Horizon Festival, was developed by Playground Games, a team formed of developers from Bizarre (Blur) Creations, Codemasters (various racing sim franchises) and Criterion Games (the Burnout series and two Need for Speedtitles).

Forza’s usual development studio, Turn 10, is already at work on Forza Motorsport 5, which has been confirmed as an Xbox One launch title. If Playground is secretly working on another Forza project, its history with Horizon makes a sequel seem like the mostly likely possibility.

It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first time rumors of a Horizon sequel have been circulated. Just a few weeks ago, a posting for an “unnamed Midlands-based racing developer” was listed by a job agency. The job description matched a posting on the Playground Games website word-for-word. According to the posting, the company is looking to recruit a Senior Environment Artist to work on “the next generation of their successful racing title.” The listing has since been removed from the job agency.

As far as concrete information about the racing franchise goes, fans can expect to see Forza Motorsport 5 in stores on Xbox One’s launch day. So far, 15 cars and four tracks have been confirmed.

As for the possibility of a Horizon sequel, we’ll keep you posted.