Playground Games' 2018 open-world racer, with changing seasons, a shared world of 72 players per server, a Top Gear story and a long run of content updates.
Forza Horizon 4 is a 2018 open-world racer from Playground Games, set in a fictionalised Britain. Its defining feature is a shared world whose seasons change every week, and it offered over 750 licensed cars and up to 72 players per server.
Playground Games created Forza Horizon 4 in 2018, with Microsoft Studios as publisher. It is the fourth Forza Horizon title and the eleventh entry in the wider Forza series. Its open world is a fictionalised Britain, and its main hook is a set of seasons that change the roads, the weather and the handling across a shared world.
When was Forza Horizon 4 released?
It was unveiled at Xbox's E3 2018 conference, then reached Windows and Xbox One on 2 October 2018. An enhanced version for Xbox Series X and S followed on 10 November 2020. Forza Horizon 5 then came out on 9 November 2021, continuing the series in a new location.
The Series X and S version was delivered through Microsoft's Smart Delivery system, which allowed the game to run in 4K at 60 frames per second on the new console. It was one of a suite of Xbox Game Studios titles given that upgrade.
A shared British map that changes with the seasons, so every player drives the same frozen lake on the same Thursday.
What is the fictional Britain like?
The map is a fictional Great Britain, but its regions are condensed versions of real places. Edinburgh and the Scottish Highlands sit at one end, while the Lake District, including Derwentwater, and the Cotswolds, including Broadway, make up much of the middle. Ambleside and Bamburgh add more variety along the way.
The world is a single synchronised shared space rather than a set of separate sessions. Each server supported up to 72 players, and the game could also be played offline for those who wanted to drive alone. Players could build custom races with a route creator, which shipped with the October 2018 update.
How did the seasons change?
The game introduced changing seasons to the series, with weather and terrain that shifted across the year. After a prologue that introduces all four seasons, the shared world changes its season every week, with each change arriving on Thursdays at 2:30 pm GMT.
A countdown clock warns players before each change, and a short cinematic shows the old season giving way to the new one. The cinematic is held back for anyone deep in an event or activity, so it never cuts into a race.
Derwentwater is the clearest example of how seasons alter the map. In winter the lake freezes, and players can drive across the ice to reach parts of the world that are closed off during the other seasons. Because the seasons are fixed across the servers, every player sees the same conditions at the same time. The prologue let players experience every season before the weekly cycle began.
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Developer | Playground Games |
| Publisher | Microsoft Studios |
| Release | 2 October 2018 (Windows, Xbox One) |
| Enhanced version | Xbox Series X and S, 10 November 2020 |
| Licensed cars | Over 750 |
| Players per server | Up to 72 |
| Successor | Forza Horizon 5, 9 November 2021 |
| Delisted | 15 December 2024 |
How did houses, cars and rewards work?
The game featured over 750 licensed cars. Players could buy houses across the map, and each house unlocked new items, cars and gameplay perks. Those perks included quick travel to any point on the map, along with Horizon Promo, a photo-based reward that had first appeared in the earlier Horizon games and returned in April 2020.
Wheelspins returned from Forza Horizon 3 as prize spins with random rewards, including cars, credits, emotes, horns and clothing. They came from story progress and seasonal challenges, and the Forzathon shop sold them too. Super Wheelspins carried better prizes and came from parts of the story and seasonal challenges, and the shop stocked those as well.
What was the soundtrack like?
The drum and bass label Hospital Records provided 20 original tracks from its roster of artists, carrying over the link to the earlier games. An unreleased track by Fred V and Grafix, called Sunrise, was made for the opening cinematic.
A Dolby Atmos mix came with the game, and the soundtrack album appeared on 26 October 2018. The music sat alongside the seasonal changes, giving each season its own feel as players drove across the map.
How did the content updates work?
Every four weeks, at the end of each season, Playground Games released an update that brought new gameplay, cars and cosmetic items. The first, in October 2018, added the Route Creator tool and a British Racing Green story. The Festival Playlist arrived later, with the Series 7 update in March 2019.
The Festival Playlist rewarded daily, weekly and monthly challenges. Those tasks included seasonal championships, Playground Games events, ranked adventures and seasonal PR stunts, and completing them also counted towards weekly and monthly rewards. Half and then four-fifths completion of the series and the current season unlocked an exclusive car or cosmetic item in one of four rarity tiers, and the system kept running through every series that followed.
Later updates changed the rules. The Series 9 update in May 2019 added a system that predicted high-speed collisions and slowed cars that rubbed along walls, limiting wallriding and ramming in online play. The Series 11 update in July 2019 brought a Top Gear story narrated by Chris Harris, with rewards that included a race-modified tractor and a Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG 6x6.
The Series 17 update in December 2019 added The Eliminator, a 72-player battle royale mode. Players start in a slow car and gather stronger vehicles from drops while racing head-to-head to stay alive. Players could also challenge rivals by aiming the camera at their car and honking the horn, which set up a head-to-head race. By 2021 Microsoft was calling it the most played multiplayer format in the game.
Series 21 brought back Horizon Promo, the photo-based reward system from earlier games, and Series 24 added a weekly Photo Challenge, which rewarded a photo of a named car in front of a named location. Series 30 in December 2020 brought Super7, a stunt mode with seven randomly selected challenges, alongside an expanded Blueprint Builder, and a fictional 2058 Quadra V-Tech arrived as part of the Cyberpunk 2077 release.
Series 37 brought Super7 High Stakes, a harder take on the same mode. After each challenge a player chose Stick, which banked the reward and restarted the game, or Twist, which piled up rewards. Losing three times wiped out every reward already earned. The update's only new car was the VUHL 05RR, which honoured Mexico, a location featured in Forza Horizon 5.
What expansions and packs were released?
Two downloadable expansions were released. Fortune Island arrived in December 2018 with a new map, extra cars, extreme weather and a treasure hunt worth up to ten million Credits. Lego Speed Champions followed on 13 June 2019 with its own campaign and Lego versions of real cars.
Smaller packs kept the game fresh. The Car Pass added 42 new cars, the Welcome Pack offered pre-tuned cars and a free player house, and the high performance and all-terrain packs filled out the garage. A February 2021 set brought James Bond cars, Formula Drift machines, Barrett-Jackson cars and Hot Wheels models.
Which brands were missing from the game?
Owing to licensing issues, Mitsubishi and Toyota vehicles were not in the base game, including Lexus models outside some off-road racing and pre-customised trucks, and a Subaru BRZ. Updates in 2019 brought them back, starting with the Mitsubishi Motors Car Pack on 15 January 2019.
The Mitsubishi pack added seven cars and a ten-mission campaign called Isha's Taxis. On the same day, two dancing emotes were removed after lawsuits from their creators against Epic Games over their use in Fortnite. Toyota returned in the Series 17 update on 12 December 2019 with the 1998 Toyota Supra RZ.
How did critics and players respond?
Forza Horizon 4 received universal acclaim on Metacritic for the Xbox One version, and the PC version earned generally favourable reviews. Its Xbox One score makes it the top-rated Horizon game, and it ties the best Forza Metacritic results with Forza Motorsport and Forza Motorsport 3.
Game Informer praised the changing weather, arguing that it reshaped how each race was driven and sometimes sent players back to the garage for a different car. VG247 liked the spread of challenges, while The Guardian enjoyed how individual cars felt different to drive, even within a single garage.
Not every verdict was warm. Polygon criticised the world as a theme-park version of England with no graffiti, council estates or industry, and Destructoid said winter was the only season that felt unique to drive. GameSpot praised the new custom course tools and the return of story missions with stunt driving.
How did the Steam release go?
The game reached Steam on 9 March 2021, but the launch suffered from gameplay issues, crashes and an inability to import Microsoft Store save games. A patch on 14 April 2021 added stability improvements, although the early problems were widely reported. Players who hoped to bring their Microsoft Store saves across found that the import did not work.
Those problems came after a long run of success on the Microsoft platforms. The Steam version was a notable change for players who had waited for the game on PC, and it reminded many of how much the launch experience mattered.
How many players did the game reach?
Playground Games announced 7 million registered users on 18 January 2019, after Fortune Island launched. By June 2019 the total had reached 10 million, and the game passed 12 million players in August 2019. Each milestone was publicly announced by the studio or publisher.
Microsoft's November 2020 figure stood at 24 million players since launch. The milestones arrived at a steady pace through 2019 and into 2020. The figures show how the shared world and rolling updates kept the audience growing well after release.
Why was the game delisted?
On 25 June 2024 the publisher pulled every piece of downloadable content from the Microsoft Store and Steam, ahead of a full delisting from both stores on 15 December 2024. Playground Games cited licensing and agreements with its partners as the reason.
The delisting removed the game from sale but not from players who already owned it. The seasonal content, the shared world and the long list of cars had defined the game for years, and its removal marked the end of a long chapter for the series.
