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I\u2019m sitting here watching the trailer for Forza Horizon 4 on Steam. The plaudits for one of the best race games of all time flash by \u2013 \u201cThe king of open-world arcade racing<\/em>\u201d says one. \u201cPure racing bliss<\/em>\u201d and \u201cHugely entertaining<\/em>,\u201d say others. Eurogamer rounds off with \u201cThe perfect open world arcade game.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n Cool, this sounds like a game that will be remembered forever then. Hall of Fame stuff. Except no, in December this year, you won\u2019t be able to buy it anymore and all digital traces of it will be expunged from history because of \u201clicenses\u201d.<\/p>\n In a bit of a mealy-mouthed statement<\/a> from the devs that doesn\u2019t even say \u2018sorry mate\u2019, the opener reads, \u201cDue to licensing and agreements with our partners, Forza Horizon 4 will be delisted from digital platforms (Microsoft Store and Steam) on December 15, 2024. This means the game and its additional content will no longer be available for purchase through online stores.\u201d<\/p>\n Am I, or you or whoever not a partner with an agreement that when I gave you all the money for Forza Horizon 4, I could well, y\u2019know, actually play it the way it was supposed to be played?<\/p>\n Now you can temper a little of your outrage in that if you already own the game you will still be able to play it, albeit in a hobbled format with no DLC to add should you want to expand it in the future, and the removal of the Festival game mode which has been present since it launched in 2021 and has reached Series 77.<\/p>\n And as much as Playground Games is doing its best to keep its baby alive (it currently has an 80% reduction in price on Steam so you can buy it and keep it) the whole thing tastes sour because I am buying the decayed corpse of the game, not the game that was \u201cpure racing bliss\u201d only yesterday.<\/p>\n Should I not buy the next Forza games because \u201clicensing issues\u201d will take them away from me at some point and maybe my favorite bits will vanish? Yes, it is on sale now, but it was still for sale recently for $60. Is this something that just popped up this morning? Is this the same for any game from now on with licensing, if that\u2019s the case I might suggest making a version without anything that will self-destruct the game a few months down the line.<\/p>\n All DLC has been removed from purchase as of today, this minute. The only way to get my hands on Forza Horizon 4 DLC now is to pirate the game. How is this right?<\/p>\n How is the only way to get something that was \u201cThe perfect open-world arcade game\u201d not long ago is to get hold of it illegally? Maybe people will just decide to do that from the off in the future, cut out the pesky middlemen.<\/p>\n This is not my sense of entitlement running wild. You lot forced me down a path where I can\u2019t really buy physical copies of games anymore to keep safe under my bed.<\/p>\n And what are these licenses you speak of? And why were they so short? Imagine if Aston Martin suddenly decided they didn\u2019t want to be James Bond\u2019s car and you couldn\u2019t watch Casino Royale anymore unless you owned it on VHS. And if you decided you wanted to buy it for yourself, well you can\u2019t because of well, licenses, or worse still here\u2019s a version where Bond has to get the bus everywhere.<\/p>\n I am big into video game preservation and small into the corporate nonsense that rides roughshod over history for a few dollars here and there. Devs, coders, marketing people, and gamers have slaved over Forza Horizon 4, all coming together to make it the great game it is (soon to be was). It\u2019s not right it can just be erased from existence everywhere but the torrent sites.<\/p>\n Games companies are again pushing people towards illicit means because people can\u2019t trust that the games they purchase (but don\u2019t even own) these days will be around to play as the years go by. Between the ever-increasing costs<\/a>, the shameless microtransactions<\/a>, oppressive DRM<\/a>, meaningless skins<\/a>, mass layoffs<\/a> and now things like this, the gaming industry will struggle to repair its reputation in the long term.<\/p>\n And to be fair, right now, it absolutely does not deserve to.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nForza \u2013 disappearing over the\u2026.<\/h2>\n