Delisted Open-World Racing Game Restores Online Features

Summary

  • Forza Horizon 3’s online services continue despite the game being delisted in 2020.
  • A community manager confirmed the servers were rebooted after players reported certain unavailable features, reaffirming Playground Games’ commitment to maintaining online services.
  • Forza Horizon 5 recently set a new milestone, accumulating over 40 million players since its launch in 2021.

Although Forza Horizon 3 was taken off the market, its online services have unexpectedly been revived, much to the delight of gamers. Despite initial concerns that the multiplayer aspect would also be discontinued, the developers at Playground Games have confirmed that these features are still active. To everyone’s surprise, the online services for Forza Horizon and Forza Horizon 2 were permanently shut down shortly after delisting, but thankfully, this isn’t the case for Forza Horizon 3. A team member from Playground has stepped in to assure fans that the game’s online features are functioning as usual.

The Forza series kicked things off on the racing track back in 2005 with the launch of Forza Motorsport, followed by the initial release of Forza Horizon in 2012. The latest addition to the Forza series, Forza Horizon 5, stirred up a bit of controversy during The Game Awards 2024, as it was not included in the Best Ongoing Game category despite offering more post-launch content than any other game within the franchise and significant updates such as the Hide and Seek multiplayer mode.

On Reddit, a post by JoaoPaulo3k shared a screenshot of another user questioning if Forza 3 had reached its end. This query was posted in the Forza subreddit, where players were concerned about potential termination of online services. However, the senior community manager from Playground stepped in to address racers’ concerns and confirmed that the servers had been restarted. It is important to note that Forza Horizon 3 entered its “End of Life” phase in 2020, which means both the base game and its DLC are no longer available for purchase on the Microsoft Store.

Forza Horizon 3’s Online Services Endure Despite Game Being Delisted

Fans of Forza faced a significant setback when Forza Horizon 4 was taken off the market in December 2024, even though it had achieved massive popularity with over 24 million players since its debut in 2018. However, it’s heartening to note that Playground Games has been swift in addressing online problems and concerns about Forza Horizon 3, and the community manager also pointed out a favorable trend in traffic after the servers were restored.

Three years after its initial release, Forza Horizon 5 achieved a notable achievement last year by welcoming more than 40 million players since its launch in 2021. This open-world racing game has now secured a place among Xbox’s most triumphant titles ever, and fans are eagerly anticipating the upcoming installment, speculated to be named Forza Horizon 6. The player community has been yearning for a Japan setting for quite some time, and it’s plausible that Playground Games may be secretly developing the sequel while wrapping up the highly anticipated Fable game.

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2025-01-08 17:10