When you enter a new country, roaring down the tarmac in a flashy sports car, when you enter a new country scored to a fast beat, there's something really special about unwrapping the shiny plastic from the new Forza Horizon box and popping the disc into the console for the first time as you take your first drive to whatever new location Playground is experimenting with, whether it's the UK, Mexico or now Japan.
I guess these days it's more… unzip that sweet, sweet preinstall button? It doesn't really have the same visual oomph.
I may have bounced back from Forza Horizon 5 and never quite clicked with the series like I did with more arcade relics like Burnout, Need for Speed and Midnight Club (all of which are set to return), but those opening moments are burned into my mind and I've often found myself restarting the game just to relive them all over again. With Forza Horizon 6, however, you don't have to throw away your progress to go back to the prologue – it's replayable for the first time in the series' history.
As pointed out by u/SpeedStepGD on the series subreddit, you can now access the prologue at any time from the map, allowing you to “relive” the initial drive. You may have missed it if you're one of the many players currently enjoying advanced access because it doesn't show up right away. As noted by u/The_Accountants, the starting unit will “remain hidden until you find the exact location”, which you can see in the image below.
Where to find the startup disk
“It's something on the top left above the first estate you unlock,” explained u/The_Accountants. “Just drive up to it and it'll pop.”
Playground may have taken six entries before adding replayability, which sounds like an obvious quality-of-life feature in hindsight, but frankly, those initial runs are lightning in a bottle and risk losing their star quality after a few plays. Still, it's nice to have the option after all these years rather than having to restart the game over and over again or dive back into the demos.
There are a lot of fun little details like this coming to light ahead of its full launch on May 19, like the tidbit revealed by design director Torben Ellert that each the tree is destructible, except for the cherry blossoms due to their cultural significance in Japan. Players have also noticed that the mascots change their expression when you bump into them, and there is a giant cigarette floating in the water (“bigareta”, as one fan put it). Oh, and there's a dinosaur hidden in the garage.
- Released
-
May 19, 2026
- ESRB
-
Everyone / Mild texts, user interactions, in-game purchases
- Developers
-
Games on the field
