For fans of racing games, you may want to act quickly and pick up Forza Horizon 4 before it gets delisted in December.
On December 15th, Microsoft / Xbox Game Studios will remove it from all digital stores. They said this is being done due to "licensing and agreements with our partners". A common occurrence for racing games, often due to music and car licenses. It will still be fully playable though as they said "Players who already own the game and its content will be able to download and play it as normal, including its offline, online, and multiplayer features; physical copies of the game purchased after this date will also work and will be able to use online features".
The game currently has a 
Steam Deck Playable rating, and works on desktop Linux too with Proton.
Such a shame, all these licensing deals wreak havoc on game preservation. That's only 6 years after release, which is really not a long time. Sure, there's games following it, but still complete rubbish to have games just vanish from stores like this. At least in this case Playground Games are keeping the servers online, but for how long exactly when they won't be making any money from it?
It's 80% off on Steam for the next 5 hours, ending at 5PM UTC. There's a chance it may have other discounts later before finally being removed but it also may not.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
I tried playing it on steam deck once, but the experience was just bad. I can't comprehend how it is 'playable'. I had frequent crashing, performance problems, sign in problems, in short, nothing but issues. Never had these while playing 60+ hours on Windows. Anyways, this is not the end of the game like it was for 'The Crew'. Forza 3 was delisted ages ago and still works, albeit not on Linux thanks to being a UWP app.I'm pretty sure even Forza 1 and 2 still are, but they never came to PC
Last edited by Stella on 27 June 2024 at 12:09 pm UTC
Personally think they should make a fully original Halo themed Forza on a halo ring and make a ton of original cars.
Nonlicense issues there.
Surprised we dont see some better licensing deals to keep games from being removed but maybe thats the way companies like it.
hardpenguin Jun 27
QuoteSuch a shame, all these licensing deals wreak havoc on game preservation. That's only 6 years after release, which is really not a long time.I wonder does the same thing happen to movies? Like, have you ever heard of a movie being taken down due to expired music license?
I'm so glad to say there's pirated version on the net. I do have it bought but it requires a Microsoft account so...yeah...
Really the saddest part is they never got the game working properly on Linux, idk how it runs on the Deck but it is PAINFUL on my 3060Ti 9th gen i7 due to random "physics stutters" every few seconds
PS: Such a great game, if you got a Windows PC and like racing games, you MUST play it, legit or otherwise
Last edited by based on 27 June 2024 at 2:38 pm UTC
Quoting: hardpenguinI think they just stop selling the movies in questionQuoteSuch a shame, all these licensing deals wreak havoc on game preservation. That's only 6 years after release, which is really not a long time.I wonder does the same thing happen to movies? Like, have you ever heard of a movie being taken down due to expired music license?
Kimyrielle Jun 27
who's gonna sue them?
Sounds like a de-facto free zone to me.
Last edited by kokoko3k on 27 June 2024 at 6:45 pm UTC
Quoting: hardpenguinI wonder does the same thing happen to movies? Like, have you ever heard of a movie being taken down due to expired music license?Happened quite a bit with TV-series in the past. For example:
"Only the first season of Malcolm in the Middle has been released on DVD. In the U.S., season two was set to be released in the fall of 2003, but was cancelled due to high costs of music clearances."
From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_in_the_Middle#Home_media
I presume those aren't issues with modern productions.
slaapliedje Jun 28
Quoting: KimyrielleI wonder why a company with as much leverage as Microsoft even agrees to licensing like that. Why game studios that large don't insist on non-expiring per-project licensing is beyond me.For racing games, I can almost guarantee it is because the car companies want people to 'ooh and aah' about their newer vehicles.
Music companies definitely have everyone else by the short and curlies though.
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