Bad news for anyone who has decided to recover this video game masterpiece: it has just been cancelled.
We often talk lately about the good fortune of being in a historical period in which there is great abundance of video game productionsa period in which dozens and dozens of noteworthy titles are released every year (including indie, double A and triple A) and in which all gaming tastes are catered for by producers.
Such an abundance that leads enthusiasts to create long backlog lists (games purchased that they do not have the material possibility to play due to lack of time) or to make the decision to leave something behind. And yet, even in such a commercially flourishing period There is no shortage of negative notes.
One of the most present problems is the one related to the timing and methods of communication of the projects in development. Given the abundance of competition, today more than ever It is important to capture the attention of the public presenting itself in a dazzling guise. The problem is that this often leads to presenting trailers with graphic quality far superior to the real one, or to placing excessive emphasis on theoretically innovative gameplay dynamics that in the end are either simply sketched out or completely missing.
Bad news for those who bought the game: the software house has just cancelled it
We have had many examples in recent years, from the most famous Cyberpunk 2077, through No Man Sky until reaching the lowest point with The Day Before. The game we are going to talk about today, however, is not a title too bad to be true and not even one that turned out to be a total scam or vaporware, but rather a game that has given emotions to many and now becomes the first warning signal of the digital-only market.
In the last few hours Playground Games, a software house subsidiary of Xbox Game Studios, has announced that Forza Horizon 4 will be removed from user availability on December 5, 2024 both from Steam and Xbox Game Pass. The reason for this decision, we learn from the press release of the development studio, is the conclusion of commercial agreements with partners, however it is not specified which agreements are referred to (music licenses?).
The fact is that anyone who wants to buy the game after that date will not be able to do so and that Anyone who played it by simply downloading it from Game Pass will no longer be able to use it. The only way for those who got it from Game Pass to continue using it beyond the indicated date is to have purchased additional content or DLC before June 25 of this year.
No problem for those who purchased the physical copy or the digital download version of the title, as it will continue to work both offline and online. However, the Festival Playlist, a multiplayer event much loved by Forza Horizon players, will definitely end. Series 77 will begin on July 25 and will end on August 22. From August 23, seasonal events will remain and all cars unlocked up to series 77 will remain in the garages of the players who unlocked them.
Since this is a video game released in 2018, it is also normal for its life cycle to end (also considering the fact that there is also the next chapter released in 2021), however the fact that the game is removed from the availability of those who played it via Game Pass highlights how subscription services do not guarantee ownership of a title even for those who pay regularly.
