Microsoft’s beautiful British countryside racer Forza Horizon 4 is coming to Steam, the company on March 9 announced today. It’s the latest in a long line of first-party Microsoft games coming to competing platforms, and the first time a power game once appeared on Valve’s storefront.
The Steam version of Forza Horizon 4 will offer cross-play with all other versions, including on console and on smartphones via xCloud streaming. It will also continue to be upgraded as the console version has, starting with a Hot Wheels Legends car pack set to release sometime in the near future.
Forza Horizon 4 has received a ton of updates since it was originally on Xbox One and PC through the Microsoft Store, including the dull but scenic extension of Fortune Island back in 2018 and a brick-breaking Lego expansion in 2019. Forza Horizon 4 makers Playground Games even added a battle royale mode at one point.
Microsoft has been bringing many of its games to Steam lately, including Gears 5, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Sea of Thieves, and others. While these games were already available on PC through the Microsoft Store, the Steam releases have led to additional sales and, most importantly, a fresh source of new players. Microsoft announced last year Which Sea of Thieves sold another million copies in the first few weeks after they hit Valve’s platform.
It is not clear where this is the rest of the power series. 2017 is more geared towards sim racers Forza Motorsport 7 is still not on Steam, and it’s not clear if the follow-up, currently titled Forza Motorsport, will also be available there. The game has been revealed at last summer’s Xbox Series X showcase, although it has no release date yet.
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Update – 2:08 p.m. ET, 2/8/21: In a follow-up statement to KotakuMicrosoft has confirmed that Forza Horizon 4 will not support cross-progression and that any save data from the existing version of the game will not be carried over to the Steam release:
‘Forza Horizon 4 ‘ on Steam is considered a separate purchase outside of the Xbox ecosystem, although cross-play is enabled to allow online players to automatically share sessions across platforms. File saving and overall progress on Steam is completely unique and separate from any pre-existing save file associated with a player’s Xbox Live gamertag. Two exceptions that carry over from Xbox to Steam are Leaderboards and Clubs, both of which are one per gamertag.