Greetings Forza Nation. Just over 4 years ago, I walked away from a career in videogames journalism for an opportunity to work on one of my favorite games (and genres) on the development team responsible for the franchise. The opportunity, of course, was the chance to build the Forza Motorsport community and harness the incredible passion here at Forzamotorsport.net. Those of you who have been around the block with me through thick and thin will remember those exciting early days when the site was more of a wild west featuring a collection of random content pages with practically no structure of UI to speak of. Then came E3 2006 when we debuted Forza Motorsport 2 with a teaser trailer. The site was cleaned up into an early blog-style format, and I began writing about anything that would get folks talking about Forza – seemingly unrelated automotive stories, teaser bits about the game, and everything in between. Out of those early days came the “Pitpass Report”, a weekly update type of entry I swiped from my colleague and then-community manager of Bungie, Frank O’Connor, who started the tradition of a weekly update with the Halo community.




Now, 4 years, 3 site face redesigns, and 2 games later, here we are. The Forza community is noticeably different; not just in the way Forzamotorsport.net has evolved with more site features and a better overall design, but also in the size, tone, and collective output of the community (i.e., all of you). And as I look back on my recent trip to E3 a few weeks ago, the folks I met from the community down in Los Angeles blew me away with their Forza passion and general hospitality. The Forza community today is a different place not because we’re all playing a different game (granted Forza the game has gotten more sophisticated via many new features, but the core driving experience remains essentially intact), rather, the collective here have matured along with the franchise. And with that maturity we’re seeing much better liveries, photos, and other types of user-generated content, such as videos, intricate car tunings, and more. Moreover, this collective maturity has created a community here at Forzamotorsport.net that I can proudly say, is one of the best online gaming communities around. With the help of the team I’ve assembled over the years, Landin Williams, Fred Howell, and Jube, Turn 10 continues to believe in the power of community and the value of the hardcore.

So with that preamble, it is bittersweet for me to announce that today will be my last day here at Turn 10 Studios and I will be moving on from my post as Forza’s community manager. I’ll be transitioning onto another first-party Xbox 360 team to work on another exciting franchise. Fortunately, I’ve hand-picked my replacement, cut from the same cloth as I was years ago before coming to Turn 10. The new community manager will start in the next few weeks – and when he does, I’m sure he’ll introduce himself via the Turn 10 blog with a Forza state of the union. Until then, Fred and Javier have the helm and will steer the community during the transition.

It’s an exciting time for racing fans, no matter what platform you’re on and what games you prefer. The truth is that the racing genre is healthy and burgeoning with goodness, be it arcade racers, sim racers, or something in-between. Then in 2011, the next Forza Motorsport experience arrives and all will be well with the world again.
Take care everyone, and thanks for all the years of your support!



Image by Enosh Kasra - See this in more in the Community Gallery

A word from Landin
“When Fred asked if I was interested in dropping some science in this week’s weekly update I found myself reminiscing to the beginning of my time here at Turn 10 Studios. Some of you may remember me as Che’s backup community mouthpiece leading up to the launch of Forza 3, writing blogs about random backyard project cars, the latest hit videos and of course our very own vibrant community. Since then I’ve transitioned into an artistic production role, working on visual development, cinematics and cameras. But enough historical data. This right here is all about the man himself…the myth…the legacy. Che Chou.

I’ve had the opportunity to work closely with Che over the past three years, and besides his amazing personality and love for all things video game, he’s really helped me grow as an employee and a person. I’d like to take this moment to send you my thanks Che. You’ve really been my mentor since I arrived here at T10 and considering you took a chance on me and my crazy Blackjack drifting videos back in 2008 I’m forever in your debt. Even if your first introductory e-mail to me was almost deleted in my junk box before I actually read it (yeah that actually happened)!

Anyways without further ado thanks for everything Che, and good luck with whatever you decide to pursue. I know you’ll bring the same intelligent thought and understanding of the industry (and everything else) wherever you go. Hold it down! Peace. Landin.”



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A word from Fred
The one thing I will always remember about working with Che is his incredible ability to spit out amazing ideas in a matter of seconds; it’s like a superpower. Much like when you brought Landin on to the Community Team, you gave me a chance to work for the game that was a huge part of my life, and I thank you for that.

I know you will be successful in the next adventure, and you always have my graphic design abilities at your hands, until of course you find another person who paints your face on a car. Thanks again for everything Che, I wish you the best.

A word from Javier (Jube)
Interviewing for Che in January was a pretty interesting experience for me, being a long time EGM/1up reader and a Forza player; it was just weird to be talking to Che in person. Add to that the red eye flight which led straight to the Turn 10 office and the usual nerves that accompany an interview and well, Luckily Che is one of the coolest people I’ve come across, even though he keeps making fun of my android phone.

I don’t think the three of us will ever be able to say thank you enough, not many people get to work with something that they love every day, and it is an opportunity I can safely say none of us take, or will take for granted. Thanks Che for trusting us and allowing us to grow and learn as employees in an industry that was foreign to us, yet one we were very passionate about. Thanks dude.



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The updates for this week in review will be a little shorter than usual, so I am going to get right to the point! We have a lot of stuff which will start next week, a new twitter contest, a VIP car, new stuff up on YouTube and last but not least, July DLC spy shots!

Let's start with July's DLC spy shot series. You guys already know how these work. The contest this month will run on the Official Turn 10 Facebook, running from Tuesday the 6th until Friday the 9th. We have lots of DLC codes to give out for this pack, as well as some other goodies to give out. I'm going to make these shots as hard as possible, so good luck to all of the participants!

The new VIP car will be rolling out on Tuesday as well, the car will be a surprise but the livery will feature everybody's favorite agent from Crackdown 2. The car Fred painted during E3 is also still on the way, we will hopefully have new info on that for you guys next week.



Image by BDD Kaido - See this in more in the Community Gallery


I almost forgot, next week we will have another Game with Dev! This will be smaller in terms of devs, but will be on Saturday again, from 12:00 to 2:00 PM PDT. We know the last time we set ran a little late for European and Japanese gamers so hopefully we will see you at this one. This will be sponsored by us, so the normal rules will apply. The Turn 10 devs will hit the hoppers for those two hours handing out unicorns and maybe a DLC code or two to gamers we run into.We will be dropping hints to Dev locations all over our social networks; you can follow us on our forums, Twitter or on Facebook.


Last but not least, a new podcast will hit the website next weekend which will feature Che, Landin and Dan Greenwalt chatting it up on all things Forza and of course, Che's last day. This is a Holiday weekend, so we will be back on Tuesday with a super busy week in front of us. Happy 4th of July to everyone stateside, to all of our international gamers you guys have a great one as well. Have a great weekend guys - Jube



NOTE: This post is from Forza Motorsport.