It’s finally happening: the widely acclaimedForza Horizon 4is now officially being sunset for good, as per the official announcement on the game’s support forum. The UK-set title will thus only be available until the end of 2024, but funnily enough, now’s the best time to be playing it.
Indeed, as is the case with every singleForzagame released in the past – all of which end up getting delisted sooner or later –Forza Horizon 4will remain accessibleto all license holders for the foreseeable future, with just a few tweaks put into place to accommodate its former live service features. It’s these tweaks, in particular, that help elevate the game from the celebration of digital artificial scarcity that it used to be up until now. Didn’t expect that, did you now? Let me explain!
Now’s the time to buy Forza Horizon 4, if you want a complete experience
Even thoughForza Horizon 5is arguably the superior product,Forza Horizon 4comes with some wildly different vibes that are, for some players, far preferable to the hyper-upbeat Mexico theme of the newer title.FH4is, instead, atinybit more grounded and comes with a stiff upper lip that precludes the sort of positivity that Playground Games banks so heavily on inFH5. It’s different enough to make it interesting, is what I’m getting at. Something similar could’ve been said aboutForza Horizon 3‘s take on Australia, mind, and that game went the way of the dodo years ago, back in 2020.
I did promise that there was a silver lining to this whole business, and I aim to deliver, however. Here’s the good news, from an anti-live-service point of view:
It’s pretty conflicting, in a way.Timeandagain, I’ve complained aboutForza‘s deeply annoying insistence on not adding virtuallyanythingtruly permanent outside of post-launch DLC. Now that a legacy title is being officially delisted, it’s going to be available as a fully-featured game, with all the FOMO tactics scrapped out of it. So, I do recommend gettingForza Horizon 4now that it’s on deep sale. Doubly so, if the newer titles’ FOMO makes you unhappy.
What this means, in practice, is that you will be able to play and enjoyallofForza Horizon 4‘s years’ worth of rewards. For some, such as myself, that means finally completing our car libraries in aPokémon-style “gotta have ’em all” obsession that’stotallynot bordering on problematic. For others, it’s all about accessingFH4‘s treasure trove of community-created content. The world’s your oyster, as it were. Or, in this case, a particular fantasy region of the UK is your oyster, but who’s to complain when you can plow through a massive field of corn in a one-off legacy Ferrari model, right?
Heck, by the time you’re done withFH4, its successor may be about to get delisted as well, and it too will presumably end up getting all its content permanently re-released after that happens.
Note that I’m nothappythatForza Horizon 4is being taken off sale. After December 2024, new players simply won’t be able to experience this huge, wonderful celebration of carsat all. And I don’t need to tell you just how ridiculously unlikely it is thatanyoldForzagame ends up getting re-released anytime soon. I am, however, happy that those of us who do end up jumping back intoForza Horizon 4after it’s sunset will get to enjoy it at its absolute best.
