Turn10 has given a soft confirmation that Forza Horizon 4 is not being delisted in the near future
Ironically this news comes from a thread in the Forza forums, where a fan pointed out that the game is currently on sale for 60 % off at its four year anniversary. The presumption made here is that Forza Horizon 4’s sale is a farewell sale, because it will have to be delisted. As Forza fans have experienced before, the Forza Horizon games get delisted as cars, songs, and other content they licensed for the game go up for renewal.
T10ManteoMax was quick to share this update on the thread:
“Hey everyone, no need to worry, we’re not planning on delisting Forza Horizon 4 anytime soon!”
First released in 2018, Forza Horizon 4 is one of the most popular and critically acclaimed games in the franchise. The game has been played by 24 million since its launch, and has received the Best Racing Game award from the Game Critics Awards, The Game Awards 2018,Gamers Choice Awards, Tirtanium Awards, and DICE Awards. It has also received a host of other awards for many technical achievements, such as 2019’s Develop: Star Awards for Best Game Design and Best Visual Art, as well as the SXSW 2019 Gaming Awards for SFX. It also boasts a Metacritic score of 92/100 for Xbox One and 88/100 for PC.
If there’s any reason for Forza Horizon 4 to be delisted after all that success, that would be its sequel Forza Horizon 5. Released three years later, it boasts reaching ten million players in its first week, the highest launch for any Xbox Game Studios game. Microsoft has also revealed that it has picked up 20 million players seven months after release.
Forza Horizon 5 also received incredible critical acclaim, winning three of the four awards it was nominated for at The Game Awards, and picking up six nominations from the 18th British Academy Games Awards. Forza Horizon 5 sits at a Metacritic score of 92/100 for the Xbox Series X and Series S versions and 91/100 for the PC versions. It should be noted that Microsoft is using the number of players as a metric, as many players would have picked up the game as part of Game Pass. It isn’t possible to gauge a 1:1 number for profit between retail sales and profits from Game Pass subscriptions, but this metric gives a better idea of how far the games have gone.
A cursory look at the history of the Forza series would indicate that it’s true that the franchise has seen sequels at a rapid pace, allowing it to accumulate a staggering 15 games in a span of 17 years. Many of those original games in the Forza Motorsport and Forza Horizon series have been delisted as the licenses they had to acquire for the games were no longer to be renewed, in favor of making new games.
So what’s different this time? It’s possible that this is a matter of Microsoft being willing to renew those licenses for Forza Horizon 4 and Forza Horizon 5 to serve a bigger purpose for the company. Both are available to get on Steam, and Microsoft’s app store, as well as Xbox consoles. They are also both part of Xbox Game Pass, making for enticing additions to a bigger library that Xbox fans are willing to subscribe for.
As PlayGround Games themselves had revealed, Forza Horizon‘s very existence as a sister series to Forza Motorsport was only made possible because Microsoft enabled the developers to take their franchise where they wanted. It hasn’t just been good for business, it’s also been fulfilling for Forza‘s developers.
Source: Forza Forums
