In this case, a new game announcement for E3 wasn't leaked! Microsoft revealed Forza Horizon 2 to IGN this morning, though we don't know much more than knowing the game's coming this year on Xbox Oneand Xbox 360.

As with the original, Forza Horizon 2 is being developed by Playground Games in the UK. The game's Xbox 360 release, however, is being handled by an external studio.

Forza Horizon 2, this time set in Southern Europe, will include an evolution of Forza Motorsport 5's controversial drivatar system, and mark the debut of a weather system.

Sweet, this could be really cool.

Loved the first. Odd that it's coming to 360 though. How much confidence does Microsoft have in its own box?

The first one was such a nice game, totally borked by 30fps. What a sad, sad release that was. :(

Cool to see that it's adding a weather system. Would be nice to see that get used in the main series with Forza 6.

I kind of wish we'd stop getting cross-gen titles. I want an Xbox One, but can't justify it with stuff like this and Titanfall being released on 360. Those versions are still functional and seem far better than say... Modern Warfare on the Wii.

Love Forza. Love weather systems. This is a must buy for me :D

Drivatar suuuucked. Hope it's not as overbearing as it was in F5. But yeah, I'll buy horizon 2. Same D.Js?

Is it curious that it's also coming to the 360? I expect this to be the norm for awhile and this game has probably been in the works for some time and with over 80 million 360 owners vs. 5 million (possibly 6 after dropping Kinect), I know where I'd want to sell to.

Super stoked for this

This is great news.

Since I don't have a Xbox One, I am actually super excited this is coming to 360. I really enjoyed the original.

And would it kill someone to save announcements for E3? Unless, there is way more secret stufffff.

(Nah.)

Horizon's multiplayer was incredibly limiting and bland compared to Forza 4 and Burnout Paradise. Fingers crossed that gets addressed in this game.

Yeah... I could go for another Forza horizon.

Being set in southern Europe i wonder if they will do a fake Monaco? That could be cool.

i played the living shit out of the first game. Cannot wait for this!

Something I want to play this Autumn. :O

I wonder if announcing all this stuff before E3 isn't so much about how packed their press conference is going to be, but more about how little confidence they have in keeping stuff from leaking.

Coming this year? WEIRD.

Is the fact that a good number of "next-gen" multi-platform games are coming out on previous-generation consoles very weird to anyone else? Even games coming out next year like Mortal Kombat X?

If each console generation is a new IP, then this new generation feels much more like a sequel or spinoff than new IP.

I dunno, I'm rambling. Anyone else got a better way of putting it?

excited as hell for this, but someone in the comments mentioned burnout and now i'm itching for a new burnout game.

Fingers crossed this one is as enjoyable as the first one!

Not going anywhere near this without reviews and community feedback, I know it's a different developer but I'm still treating the burns from Forza 5.

Absolutely loved the first - can't wait for the next.

Horizon is the only Forza game I like and I think it has amazing driving physics. I turned off every assist and chose simulation with a controller and it's the best driving feel and controls I've ever had in a racing game. For me it's the best arcade sim racer as Grid 2 dropped it hard.

360? That's drivataring me crazy.

My favorite Forza game honestly.

Just wish it came out on PC too. I don't have a 360 anymore.

@san_salvador: i thought it ran fine at 30. of course 60 fps is optimal but the quality of the driving in horizon was so good i didn't care about the frame rate

Calling the location "Southern Europe" instead of one country is very strange because the countries aren't very connected (unless they plan to do Spain/Portugal or some travel system). Hopefully Greece will be in it because the beautiful scenery here deserves to be shared around the world.

Also thank god for the 360 release because I'm not planning on buying the XBONE any time soon...

If the 360 version is as good as the first FH, i probably won't be buying a Xbox One any time soon.

Cross-gen, ugh. No thanks.

More info has come out. Xbox One version is based off Forza 5 engine. 360 version is based off Horizon 1 engine. Also Sumo Digital is doing the 360 version and Playground is doing the XB1 version.

I'm sure it will be a situation like the first game where it is drawing inspiration from the location but not really attempting to recreate any specific roads or landmarks. I doubt they'll do anything that partitions the game into separate countries/regions.

Playground Games is doing the Xbox One version based on the Forza 5 engine and Sumo Digital (a great choice to do the port) is doing the 360 version based on the original Forza Horizon engine.

I think both versions have the potential to turn out well without being hugely detrimental either.

This is excellent news!

I loved the first Forza Horizon. I think it would have done better if they'd marketed it to a greater degree, but that is neither here nor there. Bottom line, I'm glad to see this series is living on.

Ideally I'd like to see Turn 10 keep a 3 years rotation on Forza proper, the other studio make a Forza Horizon on a 3 year schedule, and one year off in between installments. I don't think it should be a yearly franchise though. And Horizon and Motorsport are different enough that I wouldn't mind them being back to back so long as there's enough time in between.

Further, I hope they do better with the Auction House in Horizon. As much as I enjoyed Forza Motorsport 5, they really dropped the ball on that aspect. What was once a great seperate game unto itself was relegated to an afterthought.

@san_salvador:

I've played through the game 3 times, and not once was I bothered by the Framerate.

Obviously 60 is better, especially for a racing game, but I would take smooth, rock-solid 30 fps over a shitty fluctuating, screen-tearing 25-40 fps anyday.

Not putting word in your mouth or anything, just my own opinion. :p

I really really hope a PC version happens eventually, but I'm not holding my breath. Forza (and especially Horizon) is the only thing keeping me from totally abandoning Xbox.

Guess I should actually finish Forza Horizon... huh..

Normally I'd be all for pre-ordering a Forza game having sunken hundreds of hours into the series, but after the mess that was Forza 5, I think I'll hold off and let others test the waters first.

FM Horizon had time of day and dirt, None if which are in FM5. The one big thing missing from Horizon was tuning so you could make beasts of cars but you couldn't tame them. Also they made the Honda CRX a fucking "unicorn" so I couldn't get my real life car but the AI could keep taunting me by driving it. A car that btw isn't hard to find IRL and dirt cheap if you do... but I'm not bitter...

Whoooo! I've been waiting for this announcement and just hoping the first one sold well enough to justify it. So much more interested in Horizon than the dry car catalog feel of the main series.

Glad the Forza Horizon 2 is coming to the Xbox 360 also, and that it's being handled by a noter dev team. It's crazy that some people make it seem like a weakness, MS can't win with some people.

Here's hoping the 360 version is as good as the last one. This was one of the few games that I knew was coming that I wanted a xbox one for.

Why is anyone surprised that Forza Horizon 2 is coming to 360? MS always said they plan to support the 360 for years to come, after the release of the Xbone. The install base is massive, why not continue to sell to it?

Hopefully they pick a place less boring than Colorado this time.

I have a PS3 and a PC, are there any games that let you just enjoy driving around like Horizon does?

It was leaked though.

Forza Horizon: "Fall 2014, probably September. Super sexy weather system and... shit tons of co-op/social stuff. 1080P and open-world, so you can road trip with your bros."

I hope all these pre-announcements won't make for a flaccid show in terms of new announcements. There's like, nothing left on the ntkrnl leak list. White Xbone. Maybe logos of Crackdown 3 and the Platinum thing.

Im just not into these games, hope it turns out well for the fans though.

So what's the difference between revealing it now or at E3 if it was leaked?

I've bought and mostly enjoyed every Forza game since 3, so I'll likely enjoy this too. Especially if it drives like Forza 5 which I really enjoyed.

There were only two games that could make me get an Xbox One. This was the second of the two.

Side note, I seriously thought that that screenshot at the top was of Horizon 2, I keep forgetting how good Horizon looked.

I bet they originally intended for it to be just on the Xbox 360.