Xbox giveth and Xbox taketh away. November saw some big names come to the Game Pass subscription service, like Stalker 2, Flight Simulator 2024, and Aliens: Dark Descent, but December sees some some real bangers removed. One of them—Forza Horizon 4—is even worse affected, entering the misery of a storefront delisting.
Going this month over the next two weeks are seven games, among them some really big names. We’ll get to Forza Horizon 4, but also leaving Game Pass is Rise of the Tomb Raider, the middle-installment of the Survivor trilogy, Supermassive’s interactive horror The Quarry, adorable all-ages puzzle-platformer Rainbow Billy, puzzle adventure Tin Hearts, the lovely (although the development wasn’t) crafting game Forager, and hit first-person horror Amnesia: The Bunker.
Oof, that’s a lot of strong titles to be going at once. And I’m personally annoyed about The Bunker, as I’d just spent far too long rearranging my storage space on my Series S to be able to install it, as it’s the only Amnesia game I’ve not gotten around to playing.
The story with Forza is a whole lot worse, although it’s nothing to do with Game Pass. On December 15, as we first learned about in June, Forza Horizon 4 is being delisted from all online gaming stores entirely—and it’s all because of licensing.
2018’s Horizon 4 immediately became one of the most beloved games…pretty much ever. Set in the English Cotswolds (although, as someone who technically lives in the Cotswolds, I’d venture a somewhat idyllic interpretation), it sits on an astonishing Metascore of 92, with a dedicated fanbase still playing as the final season, series 77, draws to a close.
The Microsoft-owned game has never expanded on what these “licensing issues” are, but you would imagine that during its development, the rights to use the vast numbers of real-world cards would have been agreed to on a limited contract. And given the timing, it’d be reasonable to guess it had been set for six years. I mean, six years, right?! That’s forever! They’d have known they were aiming for a 2021 release for Forza Horizon 5, meaning they’d have an extra three years covered even after it had been usurped…
The good news is if you own the game (you don’t actually own the game), you will be able to continue playing it, both offline and online (although the latter is likely to go eventually). All the game’s DLC was already lost in the summer, but if you bought any to use with your Game Pass subscription version of the main game, you’ll have received tokens that’ll unlock the same in a paid version. They expire in June 2026, but you know, use them now or you’ll certainly forget. You know what you’re like.
So yes, this is the last chance to ever buy Forza Horizon 4, and it’s appropriately discounted on the Xbox store right now to $12.
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