Dan Greenawalt, the long-serving studio head of Turn 10 Studios and one of the primary visionary forces behind Microsoft’s powerhouse Forza franchise, is planning to retire after a career spanning nearly 27 years with the company.
News of Greenawalt’s departure came to light through an internal memo circulated by Trevor Williams of Playground Games. According to the internal correspondence, Greenawalt has decided that now is the appropriate juncture to step down from Microsoft and bring his remarkable tenure to a close. To ensure a smooth transition during an ongoing period of corporate upheaval, Greenawalt will remain with the company temporarily to serve in an advisory capacity during the changeover period.
Williams paid tribute to Greenawalt’s immense contributions to Microsoft’s gaming ecosystem over the past three decades, highlighting a career that began long before the Forza series became a household name.
"It’s hard to overstate Dan’s impact over the past 27 years," Williams wrote in the internal memo. "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."
Williams continued, offering personal and professional regards on behalf of the broader development teams: "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."
Greenawalt’s retirement arrives amid a massive wave of structural changes and corporate reorganization within Microsoft’s Xbox division. In September, Microsoft announced sweeping plans to merge Turn 10 Studios and Playground Games—the two primary development pillars behind the Forza franchise—into a single, unified organizational entity.
This consolidation is part of a broader, aggressive corporate restructuring strategy across Xbox operations. Alongside the merging of the Forza studios, Microsoft’s wider restructuring plan includes integrating Obsidian Entertainment into Bethesda, transferring stewardship and oversight of the Halo franchise over to Activision, and implementing a substantial round of layoffs affecting 268 additional employees across the company’s gaming division.
The integration of Turn 10 and Playground Games also formalizes a shift in operational focus that has been unfolding over recent years. Following the 2023 reboot of Forza Motorsport, Turn 10 had effectively transitioned into a support studio role dedicated to assisting Playground Games with the wildly successful Forza Horizon series.
Industry observers and former developers have noted the profound shift in the landscape of Microsoft’s racing games. Former developer Fred Russell pointed out last year that the traditional core Forza Motorsport series effectively came to an end as a result of prior rounds of budget cuts and strategic shifts at Microsoft, even as the open-world Forza Horizon banner continues to thrive and command massive commercial success.
Greenawalt’s departure marks the end of an era for Turn 10 and the broader racing game genre. As a co-founder of the studio, he helped shape Forza into one of the most critically acclaimed and technologically sophisticated racing simulation franchises in the industry, competing directly with global giants like Sony’s Gran Turismo. Under his leadership, Turn 10 became synonymous with technical excellence, pushing hardware boundaries from the original Xbox generation through the Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S eras.
While Greenawalt prepares to transition out of his role during this period of extensive corporate consolidation, the future of the Forza series will now rest entirely within the newly merged structure shared by Turn 10 and Playground Games. As Microsoft continues to streamline its development studios and realign its internal priorities, the departure of a foundational figure like Greenawalt underscores the magnitude of the transition currently taking place within the walls of Xbox.
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