Forza 5 has Day One Download

Forza 5 will not be finished when it ships, Turn 10 has revealed. Instead, users will have to download some of the content before they’re allowed to play (lucky Microsoft just announced you could play while you download, eh?).

Users that hate big patches and launch (and nobody can really blame them) will be unhappy to learn that the developers behind the latest Forza are taking as much time as they have available to build and polish the content. While this means an inconvenience to the end user, it also means that the product isn’t being limited by a “Gone Gold” date and that may give them 6-8 weeks to really push the features they want.

So it’s a double-edged sword, for sure, but if it means we can avoid feature cuts and content deletion, in this and in other games in the future, I’m all for it.

On the other hand, this does mean that you’ll absolutely need an internet connection if you want to play Forza 5, and will do whenever you buy it, unless they release a GOTY edition with all the extra stuff included on the disk further down the line.

From IGN:

So when you first boot up the game, we’re going to ask you to log in. And when you log in you’re going to get the Drivatars and you’re also going to get a whole bunch of content: tracks and cars. Our production schedule is such that we are putting them in as late as possible and that means making them free as downloadable content on Day One.