Today at the New York International Auto Show, Porsche and Microsoft’s Turn 10 studios announced a multi-project six-year partnership. Under the partnership, there will be a series of co-branded initiatives for both Porsche and the Forza franchise. And it all begins with open registration for the Forza Racing Championship Season 3: The Porsche Cup.
According to the announcement post, Turn 10 entered the partnership with Porsche “as a result of their shared passion for sports cars and motorsports.” Under the partnership, the two “are working to develop and launch new ways to combine driving experiences, racing schools, and dominant motorsport successes with Forza’s regular cadence of high-quality game experiences, content, and events.” Detlev von Platen, Member of the Executive Board responsible for Sales and Marketing at Porsche AG, remarked on the partnership:
By having Microsoft as our partner, we have the opportunity to take the pleasure of driving a Porsche and making it an experience in the virtual world… games and esports connect the real and virtual worlds and enable us to gain further access to the young target group. It means that they can develop a passion for Porsche even before buying their first sports car.
The announcement post also reveals that kicking off ForzaRC this year is the Forza Racing Championship 2017 New York Invitational Presented by Porsche, hosted from April 15-16 at Microsoft’s flagship store on Fifth Avenue. With this event, 18 of ForzaRC’s Elite players from around the world will be competing for a chance to win $25,000 in cash prizes, plus a Drift competition between two of ForzaRC’s top drifters. You’ll be able to follow the action on Beam live stream, Twitch, and YouTube.
Following the Invitational, Season 3 players will be eligible to participate in two different competitions in Forza Motorsport 6 for Elite drivers and Forza Horizon 3 for casual players. Players will get the chance to race in a wide variety of Porsche models over four weeks of intense competition, ending in a finals event at a special location where winners will take home $100,000 in cash prizes.
Interestingly, the announcement also mentions how Forza is big in the online racing community in gaming.
The Forza franchise is home to the largest online racing community in gaming – in fact, over four million players race in Forza each month. As the most inclusive racing competition in gaming, ForzaRC is an esports program where players of all skill levels compete for glory. Building on the success of ForzaRC’s debut with two seasons in 2016, which drew nearly one billion impressions, fans can now register for Forza Racing Championship Season 3: The Porsche Cup, which begins May 1.
Wrapping up the announcement is the availability of the Forza Horizon 3 Porsche Car Pack. The pack features seven acclaimed Porsche vehicles to the open world of Australia’s Horizon Festival. Vehicles included in the pack are the 2016 Porsche 911 GT3 RS, 2016 Porsche Cayman GT4, 2017 Porsche Panamera Turbo, 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RS, 1995 Porsche 911 GT2, 1955 Porsche 550A Spyder, and the 1960 Porsche 718 RS 60.
