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Forza Horizon 3 is headed for an 'End of Life' delisting on Xbox stores

Pretty soon, Forza Horizon 3 or its DLC will become unavailable for purchase on digital store fronts, though multiplayer and online services will remain for now.

TJ Denzer

August 12, 2020 10:42 AM

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Forza Horizon 3 has been around for almost four years. The franchise has since seen a mainline Forza Motorsports title, a spinoff in Forza Street, and even a direct sequel in Forza Horizon 4. It’s not to say necessarily that these further entries are far superior to Forza Horizon 3, but Playground Games has certainly moved forward past it. That could probably be why the developer is talking about an “End of Life” on the game, discontinuing sales of it and its DLC on digital storefronts pretty soon.

Playground Games and Xbox Game Studios announced the “End of Life” state for Forza Horizon 3 in a series of posts on the Forza Horizon Twitter on August 11, 2020. As explained in the posts, when a game reaches “End of Life” status, that means the base game and DLC will no longer be available for purchase in the Microsoft storefronts for PC or Xbox. Even so, the servers for Forza Horizon 3 will remain intact and accessible for those that already own and play the game.

When a game reaches "End of Life", that means it and its DLC will no longer be available for purchase in the Microsoft Store. However, features like multiplayer and online services will still be accessible for those that own the game.

— Forza Horizon (@ForzaHorizon) August 11, 2020

Reportedly, Forza Horizon 3 will reach its “End of Life” status on September 27, 2020, on the game's exact anniversary of launch. Though physical copies may be available and it's good that online services will continue for now, it does bring up concerns of preservation in lieu of companies pushing their new product. The Forza franchise isn’t nearly as bad as, say, Call of Duty, Madden, or 2K sports games with their yearly releases that often render the old games defunct, but Forza still has enough of a library to make it a concern, as we see here with Forza Horizon 3. Especially considering the game was another gem of the franchise if our Shacknews review has anything to say about it.

Either way, there’s a pretty substantial sale going on Forza Horizon 3 ahead of its “End of Life” state. If you want to pick up Standard or Ultimate Editions on the extreme cheap, now is arguably the time to do it before the game is digitally de-listed.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.