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Forza Horizon 5 launched last week to rave reviews. It quickly became one of the best-rated games of 2021, even sparking talk of it being deserving of a Game of the Year nomination. More than five million people had given Forza 5 a whirl shortly after it launched, largely thanks to it being available on Xbox Game Pass from day one. Very few games are entirely without issue at launch though, and that includes Forza.
Shortly after Forza's full launch, some players discovered that the game considered their names to be “inappropriate content”. WB Games' Osama Dorias was one of the first to highlight the issue. The game designer shared screenshots demonstrating Forza would not allow them to use their name on an in-game license plate. The common theme linking names Forza appears to have a problem with is an Arabic origin, but the good news is Playground Games is working on a fix.
“We are aware and are working on a fix to evolve and adjust our content moderation,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Eurogamer's Ishraq Subhan. A timeframe for the fix or how the team plans to go about it was not specified. The 4 Winds' Nazih Fares shared similar screenshots to Dorias, adding that this is by no means the first time his name has been deemed inappropriate by a game's AI.
TheGamer reached out to Fares about the issue prior to Microsoft revealing a fix was in the works, at which point he explained why a patch for the problem just isn't enough. “That's just a start, but it doesn't really solve the issue,” Fares said. “Don't be ignorant about it. There's so many people from the region that can help you on that front... these are all mistakes that can be fixed.”
It's a shame Forza Horizon 5 has misstepped in this way considering how much it shines in other areas, including inclusivity. One of the first things players are asked to do is choose the pronouns they would like to be used to refer to them while playing the game. You can also give your driver prosthetic limbs. However, there have been issues with trans players being referred to by their deadnames in-game due to Forza taking it from their attached Microsoft account.