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Dan Greenawalt Ends Legendary Run At Forza Motorsport Dev Turn 10 Studios

Andrew Beckford

First reported by The Verge, the Creative Director of the Forza franchise, Dan Greenawalt, is retiring from Turn 10 Studios. This ends a 27-year tenure at the studio that created Forza Motorsport.  The report cites an internal memo to staff from Playground Games’ studio head, Trevor Williams.

A caucasion man with short red hair and blue eyes toward the left side of the image looking directly into camera. Behind him is the Xbox 360 logo on a video screen.
Dan Greenawalt presenting at the Xbox E3 press conference in 2009

Dan Greenawalt has been leading the creation of Forza Motorsport since its very beginnings on the original Xbox. Before that, Greenawalt worked on several fan-favorite racing games like Midtown Madness (1999, 2003), RalliSport Challenge (2002), and the incredibly popular Project Gotham Racing (2001, 2003) games. He also worked on a few non-racing games like Microsoft Baseball 3D (1998), NBA Inside Drive (1999), and Mech Assault (2002).

A man standing on stage with a red audi R8 v10 super car directly behind him above is a large screen showcasing the video game forza motorsport 3 on xbox 360.
Dan Greenawalt sharing the stage with an Audi R8 V10 supercar during the Forza Motorsport 3 reveal at the Xbox E3 conference in 2009

Though he’s easily best known for leading the creative direction of the Forza Motorsport series, which was Xbox’s answer to PlayStation’s Gran Turismo. That was no small task, considering Gran Turismo was already widely considered the benchmark console racing game series with four entries shipped before the first Forza Motorsport game released on Xbox in 2005.

But for Greenawalt, it was never about the competitors; it was about making the best racing game experience possible with his team of programmers, designers, artists, and engineers at Turn 10 Studios. Thanks in large part to his efforts and creative direction, the Forza Motorsport series came to be one of the biggest racing franchises in gaming.

A man wearing a dark blue button up shirt and black pants standing in front and to the left of a sliver Porsche 911 GT2 RS supercar. Above the car is signage for the racing game "Forza Motorsport 7"
Dan Greenawalt debuts Forza Motorsport 7 alongside the global debut of the Porsche 911 GT2 RS supercar

Major series innovations like Forzavista and Drivatars happened under Greenawalt’s leadership. He recognized and highlighted the communities within Forza fandom, such as the painters, stunt drivers, and drifters who were making viral clips long before TikTok and Instagram were a thing.

Williams noted Greenawalt’s accomplishments and leadership in the memo:

“It’s hard to overstate Dan’s impact over the past 27 years. From shipping Project Gotham Racing on the original XBOX in 2001 to leading the creation of Forza, founding Turn 10 Studios and appearing so many times on our E3 stage, usually making a dramatic entrance with a supercar in tow – and so much more – we owe tremendous thanks and gratitude to Dan. On behalf of both teams, I would like to thank Dan for his leadership, his support, and his partnership. I wish him well for whatever comes next.”

A man wearing a dark blue button up shirt and black pants walking out on to a stage through a doorway frame that is lit up red. He is raising his right hand waving to the crowd that is opposite of the stage and out of view from the camera

The report states that Greenawalt will stay on as an advisor to Williams for an undisclosed period of time before completely stepping back from the studio. Greenawalt himself has not made any public statements about his retirement from Turn 10 Studios, but if and when he speaks out, I’ll update this story.

On a personal level, I want to express deep thanks to Dan Greenawalt not only for his incredible work at Turn 10 Studios, but for always being accessible to MotorworldHype for over a decade. If you’ve been reading this site for an extended period of time, you know that at nearly every new release of a Forza Motorsport game, I would sit down on camera with Greenawalt either at a launch event, at E3 (RIP), or both. I’d interview him about the latest game’s features and often present questions from hardcore players on the Forza forums.

Andrew Beckford (left) interviewing Dan Greenawalt (right) at the Forza Motorsport 5 launch event

MotorworldHype was hardly the biggest media outlet at these events, but Greenawalt and the Xbox PR team would generously make space for me as if my little car blog was on the same level as IGN or GameSpot. That not only helped me get great coverage of Forza Motorsport games, but also gave MotorworldHype visibility and established the site as a worthy outlet for other racing game studios.

Whatever happens next for Dan Greenawalt, I’m always going to be thankful for that.

 

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