Spiel

NOVEMBER 2017 54 fans during the live esports competition, and the broader online championship lasted over a month. Then, in June of this year, the partners announced a truly historical milestone at Le Mans, the world's oldest running sports car race: a brand-new Esports Racing Class. Turn 10 and Porsche partnered with Le Mans' organizer, the ACO, to deliver on the vision. The ForzaRCElite finals took place onsite during the actual 24 Hours of Le Mans in France, and the winners of the virtual race accepted their trophies on the same 24 Hours of Le Mans podium as the winning teams driving real-life cars. Coincidentally, first place for the LMP class at Le Mans this year was won by the Porsche 919 Hybrid. Mixed engines and mixed reality for the win? But the surprises didn't end there. Serious momentum continued into the Summer. In a carefully planned reveal, Turn 10 unveiled the 700 horsepower 2018 911 GT2 RS – Porsche's most powerful roadgoing 911 ever – before Porsche officially launched the car themselves. Turn 10 displayed the car at E3, the video game industry's most important global conference, and is featuring it as the cover car of Forza Motorsport 7, launching on October 3. Customers and the press went wild marveling at the sensational GT2 RS; speculated when Porsche would officially launch it; and salivated over the 29 new Porsches which will be featured in Forza Motorsport 7. Working A Dream Job All this was made possible by an extraordinary team at Turn 10. Although they're an integral, wholly-owned studio within Microsoft, Turn 10 has a unique culture that is all their own. "We like to surround ourselves with extraordinary people and cars," says Mike. Most everyone at the studio is either passionate about video games, passionate about cars, passionate about racing ... or all of the above! It's not a requirement to be a car guy or gal to join the studio, but many in the team naturally demonstrate a love for everything automotive. While there are certainly many gorgeous Porsches among them (including those pictured here), across the Turn 10 team there are owners and lovers of every style of vehicle, including supercars, Ford Mustangs, Audis, BMWs, Subarus, Volkswagens, and almost anything else you can imagine. There's even a Caterham in the parking lot on sunny days. As befitting a leading world-class gaming studio, the culture is focused on fun, creativity, and high performance, in equal measures. Turn 10 is widely known in the video game industry as a high-performing team that delivers superior-quality video games, on time and on budget, every year. They're a business-driven, schedule-driven studio that values exactitude, accountability and excellence in the games they publish, which extends to their partnerships with car manufacturers and brands like Porsche. While they're always focused on shipping the next product, on a recent weekday morning we were able to capture a few portraits outside of Turn 10 studios, of some of the Porsche owners who've been working on the partnership. The Turn 10 team's variety of cars spans Porsche history, and represents a microcosm of the range of cars featured in the Forza Motorsport and Forza Horizon games. What's Next Just like 24 hours at Le Mans, the Porsche and Turn 10 partnership has been going nonstop. The launch of the highly- anticipated launch of Forza Motorsport 7 is just weeks away as of press time, and many exciting new projects are in the works. For those Porsche enthusiasts seeking to broaden their collection, maybe it's time to look into a virtual garage with Forza Motorsport and Forza Horizon. © 2017 Auste Viesulas. All rights reserved. John Schommer in his 1978 Porsche 911 SC. Phil Bergman with his Boxster S.

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