Finally, I can live out my Dom Toretto driving fantasies in the Forza series.
Microsoft announced today that it will release Forza Horizon 2 Presents Fast & Furious for the Xbox One and Xbox 360 on March 27 (as first spotted by ABC). This is part of a marketing push for the upcoming Furious 7 film, which follows the Fast & Furious crew on their latest car-related adventures. To ensure as many people play the game and get pumped for the film as possible, Microsoft is giving it away for free until April 10, which is a week after the movie’s April 3 release. After that, the expansion will sell for $10.
Since this new content is standalone, it will not require the full Forza Horizon 2 game. Instead, anyone can pick it up and start experiencing the open-world racing mixed together with the flair of the movie franchise.
This is not the first time a free game has appeared on consoles to promote another brand. Microsoft previously saw the free Doritos Crash Course game hit its Xbox 360 system to promote the cheese dust-covered chips back in 2010. On mobile, this sort of marketing is even more prevalent since free games are more common on that platform. Fast and Furious 6: The Game is one example. The free app from developer Kabam promoted the film and simultaneously generated significant revenue for the studio through in-app purchases.
Movie studios realize that their potential audience isn’t just on TV and looking at billboards anymore, and they can reach a young audience with disposable income through games. For a franchise like Fast & Furious, they know that Forza Horizon players are not just young and with potentially disposable income, but they also love cars and driving. A partnership to reach out to those people probably makes a lot of sense from a marketing standpoint.