Racing games had a difficult time in 2024. Forza Horizon 4 was delisted from digital stores. Servers for The Crew were turned off for good. In the fast-paced world of new releases and yearly updates, some of the best and most beloved games just don’t make the cut. But it’s not all bad news. Despite also vanishing from online stores, Forza Horizon 3, the Australian-based open-world icon that PCGamesN called “the best racing game of its generation,” is still with us. It looked like it was about to die, but Playground has swiftly stepped in.
Forza Horizon 3 was delisted all the way back in 2020. A few years later, the online services for the original Forza Horizon and Forza Horizon 2 were permanently closed. All things considered, it seemed inevitable that FH3’s multiplayer would be switched off soon, too, and indeed, there were recent signs. Attempting to log into the racing and open-world game on Monday January 6, one player reported that the livery, marketplace, clubs, and rivals menus were all inaccessible. Faced with the unstable online service – in the past an early indicator that the plug is about to be pulled entirely – they took to Reddit to ask “is this the end for Forza 3?”
But then, a sudden hope. ‘PG_Alien,’ the senior community manager at Forza Horizon developer Playground Games, saw the post and took notice. “Hey everyone,” Alien replies. “Please check again as we have rebooted the servers and we’re seeing positive responses in terms of traffic on the servers themselves.”
After being called a “saint” by another Forza Horizon 3 fan, Alien says that they simply passed the concerns about servers being shut down to the rest of the Playground team, which promptly rebooted the online services. Especially in light of so many recent shut downs (players of Ubisoft’s The Crew have organized legal action against the developer), it’s heartening that Forza Horizon 3 is being kept alive. Check out our own Forza Horizon 3 review if you want to know why it’s so good.
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