Earlier this week, we reported that developer Playground Games and publisher Microsoft announced plans to delist the digital editions of its 2018 racing game Forza Horizon 4 on December 15. We also reported that Microsoft had decided to remove all of the game"s DLC content immediately.
Well, as it turns out, there are a number of people who play Forza Horizon 4 via Xbox Game Pass or PC Game Pass, but who have also purchased DLC content for the game that"s normally not available with a subscription to those services. So Microsoft has decided to give those folks a free standard edition copy of Forza Horizon 4.
In the post on the official Forza site announcing the delisting of Forza Horizon 4, it states:
If you played Forza Horizon 4 through Xbox Game Pass and purchased DLC content for it, worry not: by having an active, full-paid (not discounted) Xbox Game Pass subscription on 6/25 you will be eligible to receive a game token if you have purchased any extra content for Forza Horizon 4 through your Xbox Message Center. Codes will start to be delivered in the following days, please bear in mind that it might take a while before you get your token.
Late on Friday, a number of gamers posted word on X they had started to receive their tokens for the free Forza Horizon 4 digital copy.
Seems like Xbox is giving away permanent copies of Forza Horizon 4 if you"ve purchased add-on content via Gamepass! 🔥💚
— Darrius Fears (@TheRealDfea) June 29, 2024
Another Xbox fan W! 💚 pic.twitter.com/8hgkUee2Rg
The delisting page says that any unused free Forza Horizon 4 game tokens will expire starting at June 25, 2026. Anyone eligible to receive this freebie and didn"t get it by that date is asked to contact Xbox support.
We have also mentioned the game"s Steam version has seen a resurgence of interest since the delisting announcement, combined with an 80 percent discount for the game for a limited time. The game is currently the seventh best-selling title on Steam as of this writing. SteamDB shows that the game has reached a new concurrent player high of 73,504 as of Friday afternoon.