The development of Forza Motorsport 7 is leaked by wheel manufacturer Fanatec, after a post on the company’s forums from CEO Thomas Jackermeier confirmed the game.
The Forza Motorsport series in general is one of the crown jewels of Microsoft. The Turn 10 Studios-developed series is seen by many as the best racing franchise on the market, with Forza Motorsport 6 sitting as potentially the best Forza game to date. The fact that Forza Motosport 7 exists, then, may not come as much of a surprise to many - but what is surprising is that confirmation of the game’s existence did not come from either Microsoft or Turn 10 Studios.
Instead, that honor has - perhaps accidentally - fallen to Thomas Jackermeier, the CEO of Fanatec. Jackermeier, whose company manufactures steering wheels for video games, took to the official Fanatec forums and effectively gave the reveal that Forza Motorsport 7 is in development. The CEO went to forum members, advising that he was having a meeting with Turn 10 Studios with relation to Forza Motorsport 7 and directly asking Fanatec fans if they had any questions or issues they wished to be raised.
“I have a meeting with the team of Turn 10 this week and we will discuss several things we could do together for their next title of Forza Motorsport,” said Jackermeier in the post. “Please tell me any wheel/pedal/shifter related issues you have in FM6 and let us know what new features you would like to see supported in FM7.” Jackermeier then signed off the forum post with “this is your chance to change something!”
From the sounds of it, wheel users should be optimistic about improved support in Forza Motorsport 7, too. Jackermeier returned to update his post after the meeting, and stated that “there is a good chance that a lot of things will change for the better in upcoming FM titles.” What’s more, it sounds like Turn 10 Studios has a colleague in charge of “physics and force feedback” with real racing experience, and Jackermeier has stated that this person is “very familiar with PC simracing.”
Turn 10 Studios also apparently feel that the PC market is “very important” - an attitude backed up by the developer’s prior claims. This year, the developer’s creative director Dan Greenawalt confirmed that future Forza Motorsport games would be released on PC and Xbox One, which would certainly explain why such open discussions were being held with wheel manufacturers given the popularity of wheels with PC racing game fans.
