Back in October, we highlighted Japanese Drift Master as a “very intriguing” new racing game heading to Xbox a month later, and it’s since launched to a decent 3.8/5 rating on the Xbox Store — 50% of all of its reviews are 5/5 on there.
It’s clearly a good game that’s well worth considering, but unfortunately, the team attracted some criticism this week for a tweet that ended up going viral with one million views, in which they playfully compared the title to Forza Horizon 6.
Here’s a look:
Who needs Forza when you already have JDM: Japanese Drift Master? Drift Japan streets TODAY! 🎌#ForzaHorizon6 #FH6 #JapaneseDriftMaster #DriftMaster #GamingLeak #JDMGang #CarGames pic.twitter.com/oDdi7JrNlL— Japanese Drift Master (@Japanese_Drift) January 14, 2026
Honestly, we think it’s pretty obvious they’re just having some fun here, and clearly there’s no malicious intent behind it, but the post nevertheless attracted negative feedback from people questioning the marketing tactic.
As mentioned, that tweet now has one million views (1.1 if we’re being specific), and therefore the team behind JDM felt the need to address the controversy, insisting that they’re massive Forza fans and that’s why they made the joke.
Here’s that response:
Whoa, cease fire, lads! 🤯
If we ourselves were not fans of the Forza franchise, we would not joke about it all so freely. 🫶
This blew up waaaay out of proportion, which we did not expect at all! We offer a friendly Kei Truck as a truce. 👊 pic.twitter.com/a3KbUzsIOA
— Japanese Drift Master (@Japanese_Drift) January 15, 2026
In some ways, the extra 1.1 million views could end up working in Japanese Drift Master’s favour, especially considering it launched during a busy time for new racers on Xbox, and it’s also getting a PS5 release in February.
They’ll probably think twice before making a joke about any other major racing franchise though, even despite how harmless it was intended to be. We bet the Forza team wouldn’t take any offence to it to be honest!
What are your thoughts on this? Let us know down in the comments section below.
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Fraser is the News Editor at Pure Xbox, where he spends his time reporting on the biggest stories in the world of Xbox and beyond.