Forza Motorsport skids into 2005
February, to be exact(ly as vague as Microsoft has been).
Microsoft has revealed that Xbox Live-enabled Forza Motorsport, the platform holder's requisite Serious Racing Game, will now pull into stores in the UK in February 2005, having previously been on course for release within the year.
"Forza Motorsport is a title we are getting amazing feedback on from people who are really passionate about the world of cars and auto racing," MS Game Studios general manager Shane Kim commented, in a press release fascinatingly devoid of the word "delay" or any variation on it.
"The ability to customize your cars, the amazingly realistic physics and of course the ability to experience all of this online is quickly making this the one 'must have' racing sim." In other words, there's no real explanation for the delay, but we're guessing it's one of two things.
Either Microsoft doesn't want the game to go up against the other pre-Christmas heavyweights (a tactic adopted by Ubisoft with Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory) and specifically Sony's Gran Turismo 4 (which, to be fair, nobody really expected to come out this year), or reports of woeful frame rates and poor feedback from Game Stars and other events have led to the need for refinement.
Either way, it seems like a relatively sensible decision, and should give Xbox owners the chance to soak up everything else that this Christmas season has to offer without running out of £40-shaped chunks of filthy gaminglucre.