Forza Motorsport 6 announced with Ford GT deal

Microsoft today announced plans for its next game in the Forza Motorsport series, which will launch on Xbox One with the new Ford GT supercar on its cover.

Forza Motorsport 6 will be available to play at E3 in June. No release date has been announced, but a late 2015 arrival is likely. Microsoft and developer Turn 10 used the North American International Auto Show to announce their collaboration with Ford.

Forza Motorsport 6 will feature the GT, Shelby GT350 Mustang and F-150 Raptor which were debuted by Ford earlier today at the auto show. The new GT uses a 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6 offering over 600 horsepower and is, by all accounts, a sexy beast of a machine.

Turn 10's John Wendl told Polygon that the deal allowed the developers, engineers and designers to work closely with Ford during the design stage of both the game and the car. "We've been doing this game series for a long time," he said. "But this is the first time we've been able to launch a car and a game at the same time."

For Ford, the deal is a marketing promotion aimed at fostering a passion for driving and for cars that has been waning among young people over the last few years. "Our challenge is to figure out how to get the younger generation to be really interested in cars," said Ford Motor Company's Dave Pericak. "It's different than in the past when we went into the garage and became passionate about what we saw. The love for driving is there but it's about how you foster and nurture that love."

Wendl said Turn 10 is not ready to talk specifics about Forza 6, above and beyond announcing the Ford deal. But he said that working with a car manufacturer during the design process had been an eye-opener for the car-crazy company. "They're doing some crazy things with Ford Performance and it takes a lot of work and understanding for us to get that realism into the game," he said.