They said it because some games like Halo Infinite have been in development since 2015. The rule is vague, not a directive, Forza games are not coming to Xbox One like Hellblade II.
It would have been fine, had it just been Halo Infinite, but it is a directive, as Booty said, and they never came out calrifying otherwise.
We know basically nothing about Forza, (in fact, WC still supposes it could be 2020), so I don't get how you can claim that.
More then happy if they shitcan the policy mind you, but they're seemingly not.
Studios like Ninja Theory probably already have early builds. RoboBlitz(along with the OG Gears of War) was a Unreal Engine 3 launch title, Daylight was released a month after Unreal Engine 4 came out.
They don't, they explicitly said UE5 is not available to partners yet.
Unreal Engine 3 had been in development for 3 years WHEN GoW was announced, and 4 when it released, and a similar timescale applies to UE4. Both of those games were also evidently more far ahead than HB2, which was more of a teaser.