When it comes to the console wars, the skirmish between sim racers Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport was once a key battleground.

PlayStation’s flagship franchise has obviously always enjoyed enormous attention due to its legacy on the PS1 and PS2, but there was a period on the PS3 where it started to lose its edge.

Many favoured Forza Motorsport, especially compared to the oft-delayed Gran Turismo 5, which really struggled with inconsistent presentation and undercooked features. (Do you remember those legacy PS2 car models?)

Fast-forward to today and there’s no real contest anymore: Gran Turismo 7 revved back in a really strong way, while Forza Motorsport’s long in development Xbox Series X|S reboot massively underperformed, finishing 463rd in the UK sales charts for the year of its release.

And it looks like Xbox’s sim racer may now have run out of road.

Reports this week revealed that almost 50% of developer Turn 10’s staff had been let go as part of Xbox’s devastating wave of layoffs, and now one former developer, Fred Russell, has said “the team is no more”.

It’s worth noting that Russell left the studio prior to this latest round of redundancies, although will likely still have connections to the team.

Nevertheless, here’s his comment in full:

“Turn 10 has shuttered the Forza Motorsport space and the team is no more. A very sad day for one of the best car racing video games. I loved my time there.”

Microsoft, of course, has shifted the franchise’s focus to the more arcade-style open world sub-series Forza Horizon, which has been selling incredibly well on PS5 of late.

We suppose, with Gran Turismo 7 already dominating the more serious racing market on PS5, and with enthusiast options like iRacing on PC, there just isn’t a place for the Forza Motorsport brand anymore.

The remaining staff at Turn 10 will likely continue to help out with the Forza Horizon franchise, which is expected to get a sixth entry in 2026.

But this seems like a sad end for a series which, for a few years at least, pushed Gran Turismo to be the best it can possibly be.