Microsoft is notorious for making more news about its tug-of-war with various government agencies over its wallet-grabbing than its video games, but perhaps that will start to change in the near future. With Forza Motorsport on the horizon, due for release this 2023, Microsoft’s popular racing game has released a new development video focusing on one of its most eye-catching accessibility options: blind driving assistance.
In this video the people from the studio along with their accessibility consultant, Brandon Cole, explain what this functionality consists of. Adding sounds that tell us if we are getting too close to the limits of the track, when we should turn or if we can accelerate or we should slow down, this system is designed so that blind or visually impaired people can enjoy the racing game like sighted people.
This is a step forward from their previous game, Forza Horizon, where they already included numerous accessibility options, winning numerous awards in this regard. Something that demonstrates the studio’s commitment to this particular facet of development.
Something possible, also, thanks to the fact that Forza Motorsport is the closest version to the simulation of the franchise. Focused on on-track racing, the variety of cars and their destructibility and modification, it has shown itself since the Xbox 360 generation, when it appeared in 2005, as the main competitor to Sony’s racing game par excellence, Gran Turismo. For its part, Forza Horizon, whose first installment appeared in 2012, is the most arcade and casual version of the franchise, inviting us to play more with realistic physics, variety of terrains and all kinds of different races and competitions under the excuse of a great festival centered around the motor world.
For that reason, we look forward to this eighth installment of the Motorsport subsaga. Not only because Microsoft has to start showing that it is not lagging behind Sony, especially after the success of its Gran Turismo 7, which has a movie in development, but also because its accessibility options such as this no-vision driving assistance are a very good precedent that other big budget games can take note of.
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