Microsoft allows anime liveries and bans explicit artwork

After months of arguments over bans on anime-painted cars, Microsoft clarified the Forza Horizon 6 moderation rules. The designs in question show characters from anime, manga, and games, a familiar strand of Japanese car culture.

The updated wording says an anime design is allowed on its own. Explicitly sexual and sexualized images are not: provocative poses, gestures, facial expressions, and art that spotlights particular body parts. Some players call that wording loose enough that a moderator could tag almost any anime piece as sexualized.

Turn 10 Studios also knocked down two rumors. Decisions are not made by automation alone, and a pile of reports does not by itself cause a ban. A report puts the design in a queue for a person, and the report count does not raise its priority. A first breach is usually a warning. Later ones lengthen the ban. The most serious categories — explicit sexual content, nudity, child sexual exploitation, violent threats, terrorism, and similar cases — can mean a permanent ban on the first strike.

Amid the fight, Japanese Steam reviews of Forza Horizon 6 fell to Mixed. Some players say they are afraid to post screenshots of other people's cars or to keep certain designs in their library. Others complain about bans on cars painted with women in swimsuits. The limits are not new to this game. Earlier entries already restricted Nazi and Confederate symbols, and Japan's imperial flag had already triggered bans. Those rules remain in Forza Horizon 6.