Forza Horizon 6‘s long overdue arrival is only a week away, but some people have managed to get ahold of it and are paying severely for it.
If there is one thing that Horizon fans have been asking for, it’s to have the game take place in Japan. Even the developers have wanted Japan for a long time.
In an interview with IGN back in 2025 when the game’s location was revealed, Playground Games art director Don Arceta said that “as devs, it’s a location that we’ve always wanted to do. Whenever we go through our location selection process, which is quite extensive and long, I won’t be lying if Japan wasn’t always in the mix.”
It’s no secret as to why, as Japan has a range of different environments, a rich car culture stemming from import and tuner culture and prominent media depictions from movies like early Fast and Furious entries and anime like Initial D which showcase Japanese cars and racing styles.
So when Playground accidentally uploaded unencrypted game files on Steam, people were quick to get access to the game before they should have. Before Playground could seal the Pandora’s Box they had unintentionally opened, the game had been downloaded and redistributed by pirates.
In response, Playground has been cracking down on accounts that accessed the game early. While there has not yet been widespread bans, at least one user wrote, in a now-deleted post on the Forza Horizon subreddit, that they were hit with a ban for “cheating/unallowed modding,” which would expire on 12/31/9999.
Image credit: WCCFtech
What makes it worse is that it’s a device ban, preventing the user from transferring the game to a fresh account.
If you do want to get access to the game before the launch date legitimately, the premium version is available on Steam for $159.99 which gives you access four days early. If that price is (understandably) too high, just wait until the official release next week. Fans have been waiting for nearly five years for a new release, so one more week won’t be the end of the world.
Sources: Windows Central, Engadget
