By the time you read this, Forza Motorsport 7 will be officially on digital and physical store shelves just waiting to be plucked up by eager players with high expectations. The team at Turn 10 Studios in Seattle, Wash. was hard at work for the last two years on Forza 7, so when it was time to finally launch the game, they wanted to do it in style.
Naturally that meant taking over the entire third floor and penthouse of the freshly re-modeled Petersen Automotive Museum in DTLA (that’s how the cool kids say “downtown LA”). Turn 10 also opened up the RSVP list to fans to go hands on with the game. There were tons of demo stations set up with 4K HDR screens so that fans could really get the full effect of what Forza 7 is capable of visually.
Up in the penthouse, things were a bit more interesting. They had demo stations set up as well but the VIPs were doing more than just having a quick hands-on session. An impromptu hot-lap competition was set up in which the winner would get a crazy looking WWE-style Xbox-themed championship belt. To make things interesting, the Forza team had newly-crowned Indy Car series champion Josef Newgarden set the fast time to beat.
Of course I could have given it a shot myself and totally destroyed Josef’s fastest time, but you know, I was there in a professional capacity, so it wouldn’t have been right for me to officially enter the competition. I’ll let you figure out how much of that last sentence was a complete lie. There were a few celebrities joining in on the fun as well, including Fast And Furious star Jordana Brewster and Cody Walker.
Meanwhile, back on the third floor Brian Ekberg, community manager for Turn 10 Studios, was hosting an all-day livestream with Tanner Foust, Josef Newgarden, and Hertech “Hert” Eugine, Jr., the point man for the Hoonigans. During the stream, the trio shared stories and explored various tracks and experimented with several different cars in Forza 7.
Outside was a sprawling fan fest featuring an ‘80s tribute band called “The Flux Capacitors.” I’m not kidding; that was really their band name. The lead singer was dressed up as Marty McFly and the lead guitarist as Doc Brown. They even had a hoverboard on stage! If they’re ever playing a gig near you I’d highly recommend checking them out; especially if you’re an ‘80s kid.
There were also more than a few pretty sweet cars parked outside serving as eye candy. They were mostly Porsches but I had absolutely no problem with that. A little later Tanner and Josef joined the crowd outside for an autograph session and to game with fans.
Oh, you might be wondering what happened with that hot-lap battle in the penthouse? Well, there were many valiant efforts by various gamers attempting to best Josef Newgarden’s lap time, and for a while it looked like no one would be able to knock the Champ off the top of the leaderboard.
Then seemingly out of nowhere, a young man with an epic beard named Zaid Niazi emerged, picked up the controller, and put together a masterful lap. Zaid beat Newgarden’s time by nearly a full second! For his triumph he was awarded the Xbox championship belt, and a Xbox “Elite” controller which normally retails for about $150.
While Josef wasn’t there to see his time fall, I’m sure he would have been honored to see it go down in such an epic fashion.
The launch event was altogether a success. Kudos to Turn 10 Studios and Microsoft for not only inviting us but opening up the event to fans rather than just a small group of “influencers.” It's always nice to see large brands showing real appreciation to fans.
If you want to pick up Forza Motorsport 7 for yourself, it’s out now in physical and digital versions. If you want to try before you buy, there is a free demo up on the Xbox store right now as well.