Microsoft’s beautiful British racing driver Forza Horizon 4 will come to Steam on March 9, the company announced today. It is the latest in a long line of original Microsoft games reaching rival platforms, and for the first time a Forza the game has already appeared in the Valve store.
The Steam version of Forza Horizon 4 will feature cross-play with all other versions, including on the console and on smartphones via xCloud streaming. It will also continue to be updated as the console version, starting with a Hot Wheels Legends car package arriving in the near future.
Forza Horizon 4 received a lot of updates since it was originally on Xbox One and PC through the Microsoft Store, including the dull but picturesque expansion, Fortune Island in 2018 and a Overwhelming Lego expansion in 2019. Forza Horizon 4 Maker Playground Games added a real battle mode at one point.
Microsoft has been bringing many of its games to Steam recently, including Gears 5, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Sea of thieves, and others. Although these games were already available for PC through the Microsoft Store, the Steam releases generated additional sales and, most importantly, a new source of new players. Microsoft announced last year This one Sea of thieves sold over a million copies in the first few weeks after joining Valve’s platform.
It is not clear where this leaves the rest of the Forza Series. 2017 more focused on the simulator Forza Motorsport 7 is not yet on Steam and it is unclear whether the accompaniment, currently titled Forza Motorsport, will also be available there. The game was revealed at the Xbox Series X showcase last summer, although it does not yet have a release date.
G / O Media can receive a commission
Update – 14h08 Eastern Time, 2/8/21: In a follow-up statement for Kotaku, Microsoft has confirmed that Forza Horizon 4 does not support cross progression and any data saved from the existing version of the game will not be carried over to the Steam release:
‘Forza Horizon 4 ‘ on Steam it is considered a separate purchase outside the Xbox ecosystem, although cross-play is enabled for online players to share sessions between platforms automatically. Saving files and general progression on Steam is completely unique and separate from any pre-existing saved files that are associated with a player’s Xbox Live gamertag. However, two exceptions that will be transferred from Xbox to Steam are Leaderboards and Clubs, which are one per gamertag.