Forza Horizon 4 (FH4) was launched in October 2018 and is one of my favourite arcade racing games, mainly because it’s set in the UK which, for a small island, has loads to offer in terms of natural beauty and twisty roads. It’s also one of the few games that I was prepared to pay full price for, as opposed to waiting for a sale. In fact, I bought it on day one. For many fans of FH4, the intro theme song is forever married to the game and every time I hear Odesza’s A Moment Apart, I think of this game.
Forza Horizon 4 To Be Delisted
It therefore came as a big surprise to discover that it will be delisted in December 2024:
Due to licensing and agreements with our partners, Forza Horizon 4 will be delisted from digital platforms (Microsoft Store and Steam) on December 15, 2024. This means the game and its additional content will no longer be available for purchase through online stores.
This announcement was made by Microsoft on June 25th when at the same time it was made clear that all DLCs would no longer be available from that day. So if you only ‘owned’ the Standard version, you were out of luck and would need to fork out for the Deluxe or Ultimate versions of the game which include the DLC add-ons. As luck would have it, the game is on sale with a hefty 80% discount on Steam, which runs until 11th July. Although I had already bought the game through Microsoft in 2018, I only had the Standard version, so I didn’t hesitate to grab the $6 Steam version. Once you ‘own’ the game, you will be able to download it again in the future even if it’s been delisted, much like I have done with Forza Horizon 3 which was delisted in September 2020 having been launched only four years before. But here’s the thing – Forza Horizon 4 was launched only six years ago and although its stay of execution lasted longer than its predecessor, these are very short lifespans for AAA games.
The reasons given for delisting are ‘licensing and agreements with partners’ which one has to assume are related to motor manufacturers and related IPs, a subject that I have limited knowledge of. The current franchise game is Forza Horizon 5 which was launched in November 2021, so one would expect that game to be delisted when? 2025?
The good news is that the Forza series is not suffering the same fate as Ubisoft’s The Crew which was permanently disabled in March 2024, so if you had bought the game, which I did in 2016 and thoroughly enjoyed it, you’ll never be able to play it again as I outlined in You Don’t Own Your Video Games! That in itself is a scandalous situation and evidently not even related to licensing agreements.
You may have noticed that I put parentheses around the word own because when you buy a game, you only ever buy a license to play it, just like any other software.
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