Forza Motorsport Won’t Support Split-Screen at Launch

Contrary to expectations, Forza Motorsport won’t support the split-screen feature at the launch. That was announced by the game’s creative director Chris Esaki in a live stream. The game is promising graphical enhancements and more realistic gameplay, increasing the pressure on technical optimization. A split-screen match uses significantly more system sources, requiring more stability work. Even though Xbox Series consoles are powerful enough to handle the graphical load, players will get that feature shortly after the release. The game’s multiplayer AI races will also be unavailable at launch, but they will show up at some point.

Forza Motorsport Won’t Support Split-Screen at Launch

Racing games tend to use split-screen features more than most genres. Many games, such as Dirt 5, Forza Horizon 5, and Gran Turismo 7, let gamers connect at least two controllers and race together. The lack of the feature on Forza Motorsport is also a retrogression for the franchise because the feature was supported on Forza Horizon 5. That could be an inevitable result of rapidly improving graphics – which charmed everyone in the trailer – and even the best console hardware could start failing with running split-screen sessions.

The developers don’t share much information about the lack of the feature, but the Xbox Series S could be the reason. The games released on Xbox Series X must also be released on its little brother because Xbox asks developers to see the two consoles as related. The flagship could be powerful enough to run two sessions on one screen at once, but we couldn’t say the same for Xbox Series S. Since the game comes from a first-party studio, the developers will probably search for a solution to provide the closest experience on both consoles.

We hope that the split-screen feature will arrive as soon as possible. There aren’t so many games offering this option, but it’s an indispensable experience for family members and in-home gatherings. Forza Motorsport will release on October 10, and it will be available on Game Pass on the launch day.