• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 

2

Meet a 21-year-old community college student who's going to China as the first American woman welder in the trades Olympics

3

The Bezos family just donated $100 million to help achieve one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top campaign promises

1

Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 

2

Meet a 21-year-old community college student who's going to China as the first American woman welder in the trades Olympics

3

The Bezos family just donated $100 million to help achieve one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top campaign promises
Microsoft

Microsoft Drives Farther Into ESports With ‘Forza 6’

By
John Gaudiosi
John Gaudiosi
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
John Gaudiosi
John Gaudiosi
Down Arrow Button Icon
March 30, 2016, 1:11 PM ET
Turn 10 Studios/Microsoft

Microsoft was early into the eSports fray, partnering with Activision Publishing on the Call of Duty Championship from 2011 through 2015. These days, it’s going all in on the first-person shooter Halo series produced by its own studio, 343 Industries, through the Halo World Championship and the Halo Pro League with eSports company ESL. In addition, Microsoft has partnered with eSports technology company FaceIt to power Xbox Live Tournaments.

Now, the software giant is bringing Forza Motorsport 6—a game developed by Microsoft Studios spinout Turn 10 Studios—to competitive gaming through a pair of separate tournaments.

Microsoft has partnered with ESL and international electric racing league Formula E to create the Forza Motorsport 6 Race Off Pro Series. Alongside the real-world season of Formula E racing in Long Beach, Calif., Paris, Berlin, Moscow, and London, gamers are competing online in virtual Formula E cars. Their prize: the chance to win an all-expenses paid trip to London, where they’ll race for a piece of the $15,815 cash prize pool. The inaugural Race Off Pro Championship will take place in a custom-built arena at London’s Battersea Park.

“It’s fantastic to see a series like Formula E recognize the importance of bringing in a brand-new audience to its sport and the power of using eSports and Forza Motorsport 6 as a bridge into attracting that audience,” said Brian Ekberg, community manager at Turn 10 Studios.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

Meanwhile, Activision Blizzard-owned Major League Gaming (MLG) just kicked off its first Forza Motorsport 6 online tournament, which runs through May 7. Players compete in weekly one-on-one and team-based online race events, featuring S-Class cars on a variety of tracks. The top drivers will win a trip to New York to race in the live finals on May 21. The $11,000 prize pool includes $5,000 for the top driver and $6,000 for the best team.

Bringing the Forza series into the world of eSports was a natural move for Turn 10 Studios, Ekberg said. After all, cars are all the studio focuses on with its games, and racing is an offshoot of the car culture, he said.

“People want to see which car is fastest on a given track, or who has the better tune or the stronger driving skills,” Ekberg said. “While the machinery of eSports has seemingly grown up quickly over the past couple of years, Forza has been in the business of online competition for a long time now, whether it was working with partners like BMW on a racing tournament in Forza Motorsport 4, where the winner took home a brand-new BMW M5, to the current eSports tournaments.”

Ekberg said the depth of modes, cars, and tracks used in the Forza 6 game series opens up a myriad of opportunities for eSports. The current ESL Formula E tournament is completely different than the MLG competition, which has its own cars and rules. This separates this game, and the racing genre, from other popular eSports titles.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO6gHdq1gRE&w=560&h=315]

Turn 10 Studios has paid close attention to the eSports initiative that sister studio 343 Industries established with the Halo World Championship. “We found it’s important for each series to define its eSports initiatives in a way that caters to the game itself and to the community,” Ekberg said.

One example is Turn 10’s ongoing Lamborghini Super Trofeo series, which features weekly events where fans race across two distinct game modes, each of which appeals to different types of players. If a player doesn’t like to race online with others, Ekberg said he or she can still compete in the game’s hot-lap competitions and feel like they have a chance at winning a cool in-game prizes such as Lamborghini vehicles.

“We’ve learned a lot over the years from partners like ESL, MLG, and Formula E, as well as from our own self-run events,” Ekberg said. “Over the next few years we will see some exciting innovation in the overall eSports landscape. We are glad to put the Forza community at the center of competitive racing, and feel we’re just getting started with the future of competitive online racing on Xbox.”

Superdata Research CEO Joost van Dreunen has found that a relatively small percentage of racing fans watches competitive events. He said the game’s emphasis on realism makes it closer to actual racing, and therefore has less appeal as an eSport. Those that watch are loyal fans of the genre and the games but represent a much smaller contingent compared to the fans of other multiplayer online battle arena games such as League of Legends or Dota 2 and first-person shooters like Halo or Call of Duty.

“MLG and ESL’s inclusion of racing games suggests that they are looking to capitalize on the current momentum in eSports and the appeal for publishers to leverage competitive events as part of their marketing and retention strategies,” van Dreunen said. “It raises the question whether this will hold in the long term.”

About the Author
By John Gaudiosi
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in

Samuel Corum/Getty Images
Big TechSpaceX
Elon Musk’s proposed pay package in SpaceX’s IPO filing reveals what the company actually is: a $1 trillion monster built to colonize Mars
By Eva RoytburgMay 20, 2026
32 minutes ago
elon
SuccessIPOs
SpaceX IPO targets $28.5 trillion total addressable market, mission to ‘make life multiplanetary’ and understand ‘true nature of the universe’
By Nick LichtenbergMay 20, 2026
3 hours ago
Jensen Huang, chief executive officer of Nvidia
AINvidia
Nvidia tells skeptical investors that AI is ready to go mainstream
By Ian King and BloombergMay 20, 2026
3 hours ago
SpaceX finally files IPO prospectus, reveals revenue is up–but losses are too
Big TechSpaceX
SpaceX finally files IPO prospectus, reveals revenue is up–but losses are too
By Allie Garfinkle and Alexei OreskovicMay 20, 2026
3 hours ago
Elon Musk sits with his fists together, looking up.
Commentaryspace
SpaceX will be worth trillions, but the space station that made it possible is worth even more — if we don’t squander it
By Tejpaul BhatiaMay 20, 2026
3 hours ago
Antler CEO Magnus Grimeland says Silicon Valley doesn’t have a monopoly on tech: ‘People can innovate from almost anywhere’
AsiaAsia Agenda
Antler CEO Magnus Grimeland says Silicon Valley doesn’t have a monopoly on tech: ‘People can innovate from almost anywhere’
By Angelica AngMay 20, 2026
3 hours ago

Most Popular

Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 
Workplace Culture
Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 
By Preston ForeMay 19, 2026
1 day ago
Meet a 21-year-old community college student who's going to China as the first American woman welder in the trades Olympics
Future of Work
Meet a 21-year-old community college student who's going to China as the first American woman welder in the trades Olympics
By Mike Householder and The Associated PressMay 17, 2026
3 days ago
The Bezos family just donated $100 million to help achieve one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top campaign promises
Politics
The Bezos family just donated $100 million to help achieve one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top campaign promises
By Jake AngeloMay 12, 2026
8 days ago
Despite a $500 million net worth, Shaq just finished his fourth degree. He warns graduates: 'Your character will take you further than your resume'
Success
Despite a $500 million net worth, Shaq just finished his fourth degree. He warns graduates: 'Your character will take you further than your resume'
By Preston ForeMay 20, 2026
10 hours ago
Spirit Airlines apologizes to all the Americans who can't afford any summer vacation flights as it shuts down
Travel & Leisure
Spirit Airlines apologizes to all the Americans who can't afford any summer vacation flights as it shuts down
By Rio Yamat and The Associated PressMay 18, 2026
2 days ago
Current price of oil as of May 19, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of May 19, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerMay 19, 2026
1 day ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.