Microsoft Files Trademark Application For "Forzatech"

Microsoft on April 2 filed a trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for something called 'Forzatech,' described only as a "game software.

The 'Forza' in the name implies that "Forzatech" could be related to Microsoft's racing simulator, Forza, or to its other Forza products, one of which is ForzaHub, the free Xbox app that collects news and information about the Forza racing video game series.

The company has also trademarked "Drivatar," which is what it calls the Cloud Compute-based artificial intelligence technology featured in recent Forza titles like Forza Motorsport 5 and Forza Horizon 2 which uses racing data from how you drive and how your friends drive to create a replica of your driving style which appears in other peoples races powered by Microsoft's Azure. This Drivatar technology will likely also continue to be used in the upcoming Forza Motorsport 6 which is schedule for release within thie fourth quarter of this year.

It has also been conjectured that aside from Drivatar, the so-called 'Forzatech' software may also find its way in the upcoming Forza Motorsport 6. Alan Walsh at Xbox Mad wrote: "Forzatech does sound like a new kind of cloud-based technology which Microsoft and Turn 10 Studios could be developing for Forza Motorsport 6. It's also worth mentioning that studios like Turn 10 would have HoloLens development kits and could be working on a version of Forza for the holographic computing device. After all, Dan Greenawalt did promise that this year will be the best year of Forza to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the first Forza Motorsport. Greenawalt emphasized that fans have a lot to look forward to this year."

Asked by Game Spot to tell more about the 'Forzatech' trademark application, a Microsoft representative said that ForzaTech is the name of the in-house Forza game engine. But the company's spokeperson only added: "We can confirm that Microsoft has filed a trademark application for ForzaTech, which is Turn 10 Studios' proprietary graphics and simulation engine for Forza. We'll have more to share at E3." The next Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3 2015, is scheduled to take place on June 16-17 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.