Forza Horizon 2 services closure | 22 Aug 2023

Forza Horizon Legacy Horizon FH2 Discussion
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Hello everyone, in response to the announcement of the server closures, I have created some templates to use while submitting support tickets. Feel free to copy and paste each corresponding response below for Forza Horizon, Forza Horizon 2 (Xbox 360) and/or Forza Horizon 2 (Xbox One):

Forza Horizon
When trying to use the online features, nothing is working. This includes joining matchmaking, the rivals feature, and the design storefront. Further, the online capabilities as a whole have been inconsistent for several years. This is unacceptable from a first-party developer and disregards the players who have purchased the game, along with its downloadable content.
Before the complete server shutdown on August 22, 2023, I request that resources be reallocated in order to restore full online capabilities to the game. This way, players who would like to complete the achievement list or experience the multiplayer one last time can do so.

Forza Horizon 2 (Xbox 360)
When trying to use the online features, nothing is working. This includes online matchmaking (road trips and free roams), co-op bucket list, rivals, and car clubs. Further, the online capabilities as a whole have been inconsistent for several years. This is unacceptable from a first-party developer and disregards the players who have purchased the game, along with its downloadable content.
Before the complete server shutdown on August 22, 2023, I request that resources be reallocated in order to restore full online capabilities to the game. This way, players who would like to complete the achievement list or experience the multiplayer one last time can do so.

Forza Horizon 2 (Xbox One)
When trying to join matchmaking or start an online road trip/free roam in either public or private lobbies, I receive the “Unable to Allocate Server” error. This has been occurring since last year and the online capabilities as a whole have been inconsistent for several years. This is unacceptable from a first-party developer and disregards the players who have purchased the game, along with its downloadable content.
Before the complete server shutdown on August 22, 2023, I request that resources be reallocated in order to restore full online capabilities to the game. This way, players who would like to complete the achievement list or experience the multiplayer one last time can do so. Tuning/livery downloads, clubs, and rivals have already partially been restored so online matchmaking should follow.

To submit through Forza Support, go to https://support.forzamotorsport.net/hc/en-us
-click on the red “Create a Ticket” button at the top
-sign into your Xbox Live account
-use the drop down menu and scroll down to “Online, Network Connection, or DNS Issues”
-put your subject (for example: Forza Horizon 2 (Xbox One) - Online Matchmaking Not Working)
-paste above response in “Description” section
-choose your respective region, Forza title (Legacy), device, ISP, and permissions
-add a screenshot if you’d like
-click the blue “Submit” button

To submit through Xbox Support, go to Xbox Support
-sign into your Xbox Live account on the top right of the page
-on the right side of the screen, scroll down and click the green “Report” button
-multiplayer gaming
-matchmaking
-paste above response in the “Additional Feedback” section
-click the green “Submit feedback” button

I suggest that we submit at least a ticket per game/per day to both Forza Support and Xbox Support. I don’t have high hopes that this will make a difference but we should use the tools they provide us to voice our concerns about these closures. If anyone has suggestions for more ways to be heard, please post it.
Thanks all!

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42

sono degli infami.

forza support suck a lot

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same reply at my ticket

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Hi, I got replay:
Thank you for taking the time to report this issue.

I wish I had better news for you, but unfortunately we no longer actively support Legacy Forza titles.

Limited support is available for matchmaking and leaderboard services; however, access to this functionality is not always guaranteed.

Players who already purchased these items should still be able to download and play them.

While I appreciate you taking the time out today to write in to Forza Support, we are sadly unable to resolve this request.

So… :frowning:

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45

servers still down, such a pity pfff…

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46

This sucks! My son and I have 4 days left to get online before we go away for 28 days…pls fix :pray:

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47

funny, they put the matchmaking of the old Call of duty episodes (360 period) alive again, these last days with lot of people playing since then…

so they could do the same for FH1/FH2 without any problem…

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48

Same thing with Shadowrun (released in 2007). Matchmaking was fixed few days ago.

It seems they’re fixing only games that belong to Microsoft.

I wish FH 2 was a first-party game from developer belongs to Microsoft.

Stop, wait a minute…

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I never buy new forza ever im done only kids will be playing

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from now they are nothing for me zeeero i never buy new forza never play these stupid games anymore even on a game pass microsoft should do something to fix servers but no

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Get the feeling they had zero interest in fixing the servers and only announced the closure to stop people to ask them to fix it :-1:t2: Extremely disappointed with the lack of service from a first part developer

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could keep the leaderboard, it’s a pretty cool feature and it doesn’t give much maintenance, the interesting thing that the old CoDs had concerts on the servers recently and Forza This shutting down the server, Microsoft does not benefit Forza?

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Just thought id chime in with same as others have said
Perhaps they have a small online player base because online hasnt worked properly for years
Annoying when only need couple more online achievements…

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Well, with 1 week to go before the scheduled services closure, and about 47 weeks after the FH2 online multiplayer actually went offline, I submitted a ticket. Wanted to submit it sooner, and while I doubt anything will be done, hopefully someone reads it and rethinks how they do things at Playground Games when it comes to communicating closures.

This is a request to get the servers working for Forza Horizon 1 and both versions of 2 (Xbox One and 360) before the currently scheduled shutdown. Even for just a final weekend.

Firstly, please do not respond with the following copy / paste response which has been posted multiple times on the forums :

Thank you for taking the time to report this issue.

I wish I had better news for you, but unfortunately we no longer actively support Legacy Forza titles.

…

While I appreciate you taking the time out today to write in to Forza Support, we are sadly unable to resolve this request.

–

It’s not that you are unable to resolve the request, it’s that you (Playground / Turn 10 / Xbox / Microsoft) apparently do not want to. And if you provide me with the same response, you’re showing you don’t care or respect your customers or fans.

Simply put, the Forza franchise does not have the best track record when communicating end of life statuses to its fan base. When Forza Motorsport 2, and perhaps 3, were delisted with their DLCs without notice, there was an outcry. A lesson was apparently learned, because things did get better with later FM and FH titles having their delistings announced well in advance.

But the shutdown of online services for various titles have rarely been properly announced. Instead, after services are down and tickets get submitted, fans are given rote responses about legacy titles and limited support. Even with the announcement of the FH1 and FH2 closures back on June 23 seemingly giving 2 months warning, online multiplayer had already been down for nearly a year in FH2, perhaps longer with the other impacted titles, with leaderboards, rivals and user generated content functionality very intermittent. For FH2 XB1, making a closure announcement in June 2022 would’ve been more appropriate, since online multiplayer has been down since around mid-September 2022. When the FH2 online menus are active, searching for an Online Road Trip finds a session, but then there’s a message that it can’t allocate a server.

Based on news articles and interviews, Forza servers used to be hosted on on-prem physical Windows servers. That means you should be able to take advantage of Microsoft’s Azure infrastructure to create Windows virtual machines to host the server side functionality for the legacy titles. Given the lower populations, the games’ services could probably double up on VMs, or piggyback on the Azure servers handling FH4 and FH5 services, reducing the need, and thus the cost, for dedicated VMs. The tech is there, you just need to take advantage of it.

So, please, change your established precedent and do something for these titles, even if it’s just a short term solution to allow many of us to finish off achievements we’ve been trying to complete for a long time but have been unable to due offline / intermittent services and poor communication. Show you care about your legacy and build some good will with your long term fans, instead of more of the same. Give FH1 and FH2 the bang of a send off they deserve, and not the wheezing whimper to the finish line they’ve been on.

Thank you.

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Couldn’t agree more, I’ve said this elsewhere but another issue is the 1000 club dlc for FH1 it needs to be connected to a server to he able to play, so that dlc is gonna be forever unplayable for those of us who own it. If only they could make it playable offline to allow us to still do the challenges etc

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With less than 4 days to go, I’d like to know: is anyone still trying to preserve the Custom Liveries & Vinyl Groups others have made in the game? Basically, download them while it’s still possible and then save them somewhere outside the game.

I’m asking this because I know there are Players out there who were really proud of their very elaborate replicas of real Cars, or just custom Liveries in general. To think they’ll never be downloadable in the game can feel quite depressing for some.

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What a massive disappointment this server closure has been. While it has been fun to be able to race my friends ghosts in rivals and compete on the speed cameras, not having the multiplayer working has made this last two months playing the game just feel kind of hollow. I had started playing the multiplayer last summer until the server stopped working and never had an issue finding other people to play with. I even managed to pick up another xbox over the winter with hopes of playing through the coop bucket lists with my wife when the servers would start working again.

It is is kind of stunning to me that Microsoft’s star racing franchises are allowed to limp across the finish line like this. They didn’t have anyone that could move the server instances to Azure or port the game server application to a newer version of Windows server?

I really hope that they do right by the fans and the series when it comes time to close FH3 and FM6 and have the features of the game working before they pull plug so people can give the games a proper send off.

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I have to agree, it’s sad to see the servers be shut down permanently especially as you’d think at least the servers for FH1 and Fh2 would at least be fully working for the last while before they go off, yet here we are last day before closure, Fh2 still barely work and Fh1 don’t work at all.

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Thanks for nothing :roll_eyes::roll_eyes::roll_eyes:

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61

If they are going to close the online servers definitely at least make an update in which you can play online through a LAN connection as with FH1

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