Forza's car collecting inspired by Pokemon

What could Forza Motorsport and Pokemon possibly have in common? According to Turn 10 creative director Dan Greenawalt in an interview with SPOnG, he knew one way to make the original 2005 racing game stand out from the automotive pack was by compelling players to catch-em-all — in this case, car titles.

"It did collecting using a rarity system — through different coloured versions — with a sense that everything felt very natural. And actually, there’s a really natural sense of rarity in cars." Greenawalt said. "So in Forza 1, the cars had a rarity meter, and you had to pick your region — much like choosing Pokémon Sapphire or Ruby — and that made certain cars more or less rare in the game. That was directly inspired by Pokémon."

He said comparisons between upcoming open-world racer Forza Horizon and Burnout Paradise are mostly irrelevant. Instead, his team specifically looked outside the racing genre and took more inspiration from games like Red Dead Redemption and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.