Most racing games can be divided into two sub-genres. There are sim-racers, which are focused on simulating the real sport of racing as closely as possible, and there are arcade-racers, which are willing to cut back on realism if it makes the game more fun to play. The two first-party Xbox flagship racing games, Forza Motorsport and Forza Horizon, neatly cover off these two sub-genres, but before Forza Horizon released in 2012, there was another iconic arcade-racing series on Xbox.
Project Gotham Racing was developed by Bizarre Creations and released for the original Xbox in 2001, meaning the series pre-dates Xbox’s flagship racing series Forza Motorsport. The beloved series continued until PGR4 on the Xbox 360 released in 2007, but when Bizarre Creations was bought by Activation the PGR series was discontinued.
The brief chance Project Gotham Racing had of being brought back was turned down by Microsoft, however, as revealed by the Studio Head at Playground Games Trevor Williams in a recent interview with GQ. Reportedly, Williams had pitched Playground Games taking over the PGR series and was immediately declined. The story quickly turned around for Williams after he was asked what Playground Games would do with a Forza spinoff. Williams then, "almost on a napkin" pitched what would go on to become the incredibly successful Forza Horizon series.
Project Gotham Racing and Forza Horizon are quite similar games fundamentally, as both are focused on the style and culture that surrounds the sport of racing rather than the simulation of the racing itself. Forza Horizon builds its races around a seemingly perpetual car festival, while PGR3 introduced Gotham TV, which was an in-game TV network that reported on online and single player races. Both games also allowed the player to listen to in-game radio stations, and rewarded points for impressive driving.
The biggest thing PGR and Forza Horizon have in common is that although both games are arcade-racers, neither one strays too far from the ideals of a sim-racing game. The games also use real licensed cars, and so, although the controls may be exaggerated slightly in the name of more fun gameplay and better power-slides, nothing the player does will straying too far outside the realm of possibility. This does explain the success both titles have been able to garner with both simulation and arcade-racing game fans.
The newest main series Forza Motorsport game recently got a new trailer, but with Forza Horizon 5 surpassing 20 million players, it is yet to be seen whether the original Xbox racing sim can still keep up with its spin-off series.
Forza Horizon 5 is available for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: GQ