While the Forza series has long moved on to its fifth open-world title for years by now (plus a rebooted Motorsport title), the British-themed Forza Horizon 4 has been chugging along in the background. If you are one of the players that haven’t bought this game yet, better do it soon – as Microsoft will soon de-list the game from all online stores, citing licensing restrictions.
Forza Horizon 4’s Days On Stores Are Numbered

To be very clear, this doesn’t mean Microsoft is turning off the game servers on the announced date of December 15, 2024. Delisting simply means you won’t be able to buy this game anymore on Microsoft Store and Steam, so existing players who already owned the game can mostly ignore this fact.
I say mostly, because there’s a small caveat: effectively immediately, all unpurchased DLCs for this game have been taken offline, but you can still purchase the base game in three different editions at a discounted price until the delisting happens. Xbox Game Pass owners who purchased DLCs prior to this date will instead receive a game token to access the extra content from here on.

As part of the delisting process, Playground Games (the developers behind Forza Horizon series) has noted that it will deliver the final Festival Playlist that ends on August 22 (22:30 Malaysian Time), after that point some of the in-game achievements will remain permanently locked if the players haven’t completed the required goals by then. However, players can continue to unlock the cars previously exclusive to these events by converting Forzathon points (obtainable through daily and weekly challenges once the final Festival Playlist ends) into Backstage Passes.
Racing games like Forza get delisted from time to time due to their unique licensing nature – these games often come with licensed vehicles from real-life carmakers, and these agreements have a finite period (the same applies to licensed songs for in-game soundtracks). Unless perpetual licenses can be obtained, it’s usually impossible for these games to stay on storefronts forever. It’s worth mentioning again that Forza Horizon 4 will remain playable after the delisting date, and Microsoft has made no plans of shutting down its servers for the foreseeable future.
Pokdepinion: While I play FH5 a lot now, I do miss the Winter season unique to FH4. It’s fun driving on ice!