CLICK HERE TO READ OUR HANDS-ON PREVIEW WITH FORZA HORIZON 5
It’s clear that Forza Horizon 5 is a flagship and showcase title for the Xbox Series X/S hardware, but not a lot of attention has been paid to how the game is set to run on legacy hardware.
In our recent interview, Mike Brown, Creative Director over at Playground Games, cited the benefits of the SSD, saying it freed the team up creatively, but went on to note that the version that ships for the Xbox One is one that players should be happy with.
Though it’s perhaps a miracle we’re getting Forza Horizon 5 on legacy hardware at all, it won’t be without a few sacrifices.
“I don’t think we’ve released the Initial Drive for the Xbox One version yet, but there are loading screens. I’ll be willing to admit that,” said Brown. “The game actually looks very good on Xbox One, but it doesn’t have an SSD. So there are restrictions of the past.”
On Xbox Series X, the game’s Initial Drive is seamless and buttery smooth. It’s hard to know without playing it on legacy hardware how loading screens might impact the experience, but it seems like a small price to pay to have this game running on Xbox One.
The developer went on to describe the process of downscaling for Xbox One.
“If you’re a PC developer, then you are used to just streamlining your technology to work on as lower-spec a machine as you can. Because on PC, the lower-spec machine you can run on that the more gamers that you can bring to the game. And honestly, scaling down to the Xbox One is a similar process. I think that it will be one of the better-looking games on Xbox One.
“I think people are really gonna love it. It’s an Xbox One game, it’s not gonna look as good as the Series X. It is going to have loading screens, that’s the reality of that. But I think it wasn’t any extra complication for us versus making it on a low spec PC. And I think the version that’s coming out people are gonna be really happy with.”
