Forza creator Dan Greenawalt is leaving Microsoft after 27 years

Dan Greenawalt, studio head at Turn 10 and co-creator of the Forza series, plans to retire after nearly 27 years at Microsoft.This is reported by The Verge, citing an internal letter from Trevor Williams, head of Playground Games.

“Dan has decided that now is the right time to retire from Microsoft,” the publication quotes Williams’ letter as saying.Greenwalt will remain briefly as an adviser during the transition.Williams noted that it is difficult to overstate Dan's contributions over these 27 years: from the release of Project Gotham Racing on the first Xbox in 2001 to the creation of Forza and the founding of Turn 10.

The departure occurs against the backdrop of reorganization.In September, Microsoft announced that it would merge Turn 10 and Playground, two Forza studios, into one.As part of the same restructuring, Obsidian is being taken over by Bethesda, and Halo is being transferred to Activision.In addition, the company will lay off another 268 employees.We wrote more about the state of affairs in the gaming division in the material Xbox lost 2% of revenue for the quarter and in a note about looking for a buyer for Arkane Lyon.

Turn 10 has previously served as a de facto satellite studio for Forza Horizon following the relaunch of Forza Motorsport in 2023.Former developer Fred Russell said last year that the Motorsport series died under another round of cutbacks.