Xbox is merging its Forza developers into a single studio

Playground Games and Turn 10 Studios staff will now focus on Forza Horizon and Fable together.

Playground Games and Turn 10 Studios staff will now focus on Forza Horizon and Fable together.

by

Tom Warren

Sep 22, 2026, 2:01 PM UTC

Image: Microsoft

Part OfXbox’s ‘reset’: all the news about Microsoft’s layoffs and studio changessee all updates

Tom Warren

is a senior correspondent and author of

Notepad

, who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years.

Microsoft is uniting its twoForzadevelopers into a single studio today, as part of amassive restructuring of Xbox. Playground Games, which developsForza Horizon, and Turn 10 Studios, creators ofForza Motorsport, are merging together to focus onForza HorizonandFable.

“Playground and Turn 10 will come together as one studio focused on theForzaandFablefranchises,” explains Xbox chief content officer Matt Bootyin a memo. “These two studios have been technological, creative, and franchise partners for over a decade, and today’s changes will formally move their work into one team.”

The closure of Turn 10 Studios leaves big unanswered questions around the future ofForza Motorsport, and whether Microsoft will ever return to the franchise or simply focus onForza Horizoninstead.

More than 70 people atForza Motorsportdeveloper Turn 10 Studios werelaid off last year, in a move that hit the vast majority of the studio. Over the past year, Turn 10 Studios has essentially been maintainingForza Motorsport, and now those who remain will be moving over to Playground Games to work onForza HorizonandFable.

The Playground Games and Turn 10 Studios changes are part of a larger reorganization of Xbox today. Activision is taking on theHalofranchise, alongsideSea of Thievesdevelopers Rare and World’s Edge, the studio responsible forAge of Empires. You can read more about thelatest Xbox shake-up right here.

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