‘Forza Horizon 3’ Demo Drops Sunday For Xbox One, Windows 10 Likely Later [Update]
It looks like Xbox One and Windows 10 PC owners can get a taste of Forza Horizon 3 starting Sunday. An Xbox Store page for the demo appeared this morning with a late Sunday evening launch time and other details. A Windows 10 release for the demo may be pending.
Update: The September 11 release date for the Forza Horizon 3 demo on the Xbox Store appears to be an error. Turn 10 Studios later posted the following on Twitter just before 8 pm. ET.
We are getting closer to the release of #ForzaHorizon3 and will be sharing more details on demo plans very soon. Stay tuned!
— Forza Motorsport (@ForzaMotorsport) September 11, 2016
There have been images of various flyers and banners showing a September 12 release date for the demo. Time to keep an eye out for what happens Monday.
Original Story:
The Forza Horizon 3 Demo Xbox Store page states the demo will release on Sunday, September 11 at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT. The ability to pre-download the demo is not available, but it will be a hefty 18.34 GB download. Details about what the demo will contain have not been revealed by Microsoft, developer Playground Games, or Forza franchise owner Turn 10 Studios.
A Windows 10 release of the Forza Horizon 3 Demo does not appear to be coming tonight, but is possibly pending the official launch of the Play Anywhere initiative. This starts Tuesday, September 13, with the release of ReCore for both the Xbox One and Windows 10. It will be followed by the official launch of Forza Horizon 3 on September 27, and then Gears of War 4 on October 11. Other games also planned for the initiative including ARK: Survival Evolved, Sea of Thieves, Halo Wars 2, and more.
A digital purchase of Forza Horizon 3 or any of the other Play Anywhere titles from the Xbox Store or Windows Store will give buyers access to the game on both platforms. This will grant access to games on the Xbox One and Windows 10 with cross-saves, and depending on the title, cross-play.
Turn 10 Studios shared the recommended PC specs needed to run Forza Horizon 3 via the studio’s official website. The provided specs will are for running the game at 1080p. Specs needed for 4K resolutions have not been shared yet, but expect a GPU bump to the Nvidia GTX 1080 along with an SSD hard drive based on past experience.
Forza Horizon 3 Recommended Specs:
- CPU: i7 3820 @ 3.6GHz
- GPU: NVIDIA GTX 970 or NVIDIA GTX 1060, AMD R9 290X or AMD RX 480
- VRAM: 4GB
- RAM: 12GB
- Hard Drive Type: HDD
- Available Space: 55 GB
- Resolution: 1920 x 1080
- Windows Version: Windows Anniversary Edition 64-bit 14393.101
Meanwhile, the complete list of radio stations and songs for Forza Horizon 3 were announced Friday by Turn 10 Studios Community Manager Brian Ekberg.
“The Forza Horizon 3 original soundtrack features a broader musical selection than any Horizon game before with nearly 150 songs across eight, in-game radio stations. On top of returning favorites like Horizon Pulse and Horizon Bass Arena, several new stations add new and classic hits from genres across hip hop, indie rock, punk/metal, and of course, classical music.”
Forza Horizon 3 players will also be able to pull additional songs from the Microsoft Groove music streaming service. A Groove Music Pass costs $10 a month or $100 a year. Of course, the Xbox One now supports the ability to play background music. Users can install different music players to access music installed on an attached USB drive or through OneDrive.
As a reminder, the original Forza Horizon is available as a free download for Xbox LIVE Gold subscribers. The Xbox 360 backwards-compatible title is part of the September Games with Gold package and will be available to download for free until Thursday, September 15. This is Microsoft’s attempt to grease the skids for the release of Forza Horizon 3 and is actually a well done bit of marketing to get Xbox One owners prepared and excited.
Forza Horizon is the first spin-off of the Forza Motorsport series that takes the franchise from the hardcore racing simulator to an open-world racing experience. Released on the Xbox 360 in 2012 and co-developed by Playground Games, players will race in events set in the state of Colorado. The game was praised on Metacritic for expanding the Forza series with an accessible open-world arcade racer and earned an 85 aggregate review score.
Do you plan to download the Forza Horizon 3 demo and take it for a test spin? Will you do it on the Xbox One, a Windows 10 PC, or both? Sound off in the comments below.
[Image via Turn 10 Studios]
