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Microsoft's 'Forza' Video Game Francise Tops $1 Billion in Sales (xbox.com)

Posted by msmash on from the one-billion-mark dept.

Here's another area where Microsoft, whose cloud services are doing very well, continues to make a lot of money: video games. Microsoft has minted its fifth billion-dollar video-game franchise. The "Forza" racing series in December topped $1 billion in lifetime sales since the first game's release 12 years ago, Microsoft said. From company's blogpost: As of December, more than 14 million unique players were involved in the Forza community on Xbox One and Windows 10, the award-winning Forza Horizon 3 sold through 2.5 million units, and Forza continued its run as the best-selling racing franchise of this console generation. Additionally, our online racing community expanded significantly: over three million players joined us online each month and we launched the Forza Racing Championship, an eSports league for players of all skill levels to compete for glory and real-world prizes. "Since the beginning, Forza has combined stunning graphics, racing's leading simulation engine, and an emphasis on fun and accessibility," said Phil Spencer, head of Xbox. "With the Forza series, Turn 10 Studios has built the world's largest racing community. We couldn't be more proud of their success." Other game franchises in Microsoft's billion-dollar club are "Halo," "Minecraft," "Gears of War", and "Age of Empires".

17 of 35 comments (clear)

  1. WTF??? Francise?? by OzPeter · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Is MS making $1 Billion in sales by forcing people in Canada to speak French? What sort of video game is this? Does it try and hypnotize you and make you download French tutorials? This sort of shit should be banned from sales.

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    1. Re:WTF??? Francise?? by alleycat0 · · Score: 1

      Don't call me Francise!

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      I am not a number - I am a free man!
  2. Francise? by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

    is that when Fran Drescher gets specific about a subject?


    Come on, Slashdot editors, don't you have anyone proofread these before you post them to the front page? Or at least run them through a spellchecker?

    1. Re:Francise? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Is it bad that I didn't even notice the typo and my brain just autocorrected that to "franchise".

    2. Re:Francise? by OzPeter · · Score: 1

      Come on, Slashdot editors, don't you have anyone proofread these before you post them to the front page? Or at least run them through a spellchecker?

      In their defense, in Canadian English, Francise is a valid word.

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  3. Fun question... by Penguinisto · · Score: 2

    ...does this mean the overall XBox ROI has finally been reached/surpassed (what, 18-19 years later?)

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    1. Re:Fun question... by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      No it does not. The thing about ROI is for there to be a return you need to build something with the investment that makes money. With all the xboxes the more that were sold the more of a loss it made due to being a loss leader. Cumulatively the Xbox is likely still at a loss, and don't forget while we have $1bn in sales here, we have to divide that by 9 games each with an individual investment cost to overcome.

      I believe the only company to make serious year over year profits and well and truly make an ROI was Nintendo ... at least until the Wii U.

  4. Wearing it Out by Luthair · · Score: 1

    Much like Call of Duty, Microsoft is releasing far too frequently which will kill interest.

    1. Re:Wearing it Out by RavenLrD20k · · Score: 1

      Call of Duty: The series that panders to lower and lower common denominators of gamers with each incremental update which no one will admit they even like... unless they're 12.

    2. Re:Wearing it Out by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      Much like Call of Duty, Microsoft is releasing far too frequently which will kill interest.

      A new Call of Duty comes out every year. I think there's only two Forza titles on the Xbone, one at launch in 2013, and one that was released in 2015. Granted, they also have Forza Horizon, which is a different game altogether (Forza is a simulation game, Forza Horizon is an arcade open-world driving game). Granted, there was also two Forza Horizon games too, one in 2014 and one in 2016.

      But Forza and Forza Horizon players don't overlap very well - if you're hard core into simulation, Forza Horzon is a joke on that aspect, and if you're into Forza Horizon, Forza is just plain brutal without all the assists turned on. The only overlap is if you like car driving games.

      Call of Duty, though, while it's done by several different developers overlapped and pipelined to have a release yearly, generally all cater to the same player, so really, you could call it Call of Duty 2013, Call of Duty 2014, Call of Duty 2015, Call of Duty 2016, Call of Duty 2017, etc.

  5. Franchise... by loranger · · Score: 1

    So if I understand well, the areas where Microsoft if winning money is the one they only invest in? Does this mean that Micro$oft is slowly becoming an investment company?

  6. Re:Created by a cast of thousands of H1B by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

    If the value of the American dollar crashes, every American will become a billionaire.

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  7. Sooo, how much was 'credit' sales? by ravenshrike · · Score: 1

    Seriously, I can't help but notice they emphasize monetary value over unit throughput. Not to mention "Forza continued its run as the best-selling racing franchise of this console generation." means jack shit when GT Sport doesn't release until later this year.

  8. Re: All Acquired Titles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Microsoft is a corporation, not an individual, so all of its products will inevitably be the the product of some subunits of it.

    Given that Microsoft bought Bungie before Halo was released, and it was rewritten as a First-Person shooter, I'll give it credit.

    Similarly, I can say that Age of Empires has long been held by Microsoft, enough to give them significant credit. I might go 1 and 4 for it.

    Gears of War, I'm a bit less certain about. Maybe half and half.

    Minecraft, I'll say that it is acquired, however.

  9. Re:All Acquired Titles by RightSaidFred99 · · Score: 1

    Yes, but isn't that something a stupid person says? Isn't it true that companies pay people to do things by their very nature? I mean, what the fuck are you even carrying on about, it's complete nonsense.

  10. Re:Gran Turismo has sold over $4 Billion as of 201 by damnbunni · · Score: 1

    A lot of that is simply because Gran Turismo is two full console generations older than Forza.

    If you take the PS1 and PS2 games out of the totals, GT still outsells Forza, but not by a whole lot.

    And Forza 6 Apex is free to download on Windows (with paid DLC), so who the heck knows what that's doing to the total player base.

  11. Re:Gran Turismo has sold over $4 Billion as of 201 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The second Gran Turismo for PS2 was released around the same time as the original Forza Motorsport on the Xbox, so it would seem appropriate to include it in a comparison with Forza, rather than taking it out as you suggest.

    The last Gran Turismo was released in 2013, so using your metrics we should ignore Forza Horizon 2 (2014), Forza Motorsport 6 (2015) and Forza Horizon 3 (2016), or we would be giving an unfair advantage to the Forza total.

    When you compare the period when both GT and Forza were active franchises (2005-2013), GT sells way more copies than Forza.