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Bowie Knife99 Drivatar Plagues Forza Horizon 6 Races

Playground Games says it will tune the game's Drivatar AI to be more forgiving after the persona's aggressive driving went viral.

Overview

  • Players flooded Reddit, X and Steam with clips of the Drivatar that rams opponents, spins cars out and wins in unlikely vehicles, driving the story viral on Monday.
  • Forza Horizon 6 uses Drivatars, AI recreations of real players that mirror driving styles, which lets a single aggressive profile repeat hostile moves across many races.
  • Many players responded by friending large numbers of accounts because the game favors friends' Drivatars in sessions and that reduces the chance of encountering the notorious profile.
  • Xbox's official UK account and several outlets picked up the meme, and Playground Games has confirmed it is investigating changes that would make Drivatars less punishing in a forthcoming update.
  • The episode highlights a design risk where behavior-cloning AI can amplify antisocial play and suggests developers will face choices about how strictly to model player aggression versus preserving a playable experience.