Forza Horizon 4 Ultimate Edition

Forza Horizon 4 Ultimate Edition is an open-world arcade racing game for PC developed by Playground Games and published by Xbox Game Studios. The edition has not been replaced by a verified rebrand, but its digital storefront status has changed: Forza Horizon 4 is delisted from Steam and the Microsoft Store. Existing owners can still download and play the game, including its offline, online, and multiplayer features.

Set across a shared interpretation of historic Britain, the game combines accessible driving with vehicle tuning, exploration, competitive events, and a large collectible garage. Its strongest identity comes from four changing seasons, an open-ended progression structure, and a car roster built for both casual cruising and detailed setup work.

Open-world driving across four seasons

The central loop is simple: choose a car, drive anywhere across Britain, discover an activity, and turn that experience into influence, credits, skill points, or new vehicles. Roads connect cities, villages, farmland, forests, lakes, beaches, and mountain routes, so the map works as both a race venue and a free-roaming playground.

Dynamic seasons alter the appearance and driving conditions of the world. Summer offers dry roads and clear visibility, while autumn, winter, and spring introduce different surfaces, weather patterns, scenery, and event conditions. Winter can freeze bodies of water and change how familiar routes are approached, making the seasonal cycle more than a visual filter.

The camera can be used from both first-person and third-person perspectives. Driving assists, rewind functionality, selectable steering behavior, and adjustable difficulty let the same event support relaxed controller play or more demanding manual driving.

Progression built around player choice

Forza Horizon 4 uses an open-ended campaign rather than a strictly linear career ladder. Racing, stunt challenges, exploration, car collecting, tuning, stories, and online activities all contribute to progression toward becoming a Horizon Superstar.

Each vehicle has its own Car Mastery skill tree. Skill points earned through driving can unlock bonuses attached to the car being used, giving favorite vehicles a practical progression layer. This encourages experimentation because a classic road car, rally build, drift setup, or off-road machine can each support a different style of play.

Horizon Stories add structured challenge series built around characters, businesses, and themed driving tasks. These activities move beyond ordinary checkpoint races by asking you to perform stunts, deliver vehicles, pursue targets, or complete scenario-specific objectives under pressure.

Events, creation tools, and online modes

The event selection covers road racing, street racing, dirt racing, cross-country events, drag races, drift challenges, showcases, speed zones, danger signs, and other PR Stunts. Customization includes paint jobs, liveries, tuning, upgrades, and blueprint-based event creation.

Online play is integrated into the shared world through convoys, competitive events, cooperative activities, and cross-platform multiplayer. The Xbox edition information lists online co-op for two to six players and online multiplayer for two to twelve players, while the PC release supports online co-op, online PvP, and cross-platform multiplayer.

The Eliminator provides a distinct battle-royale-style driving mode. Players search the map for car drops, challenge rivals in head-to-head races, upgrade into stronger vehicles, and attempt to survive until the final race. It is separate from the normal Horizon progression loop and rewards route reading, risk management, and quick vehicle decisions.

Horizon Super7 focuses on community-created challenges. Players can complete a sequence of seven activities built from custom routes, stunts, and blueprint tools, adding a more user-generated layer to the standard race and exploration content.

What the Ultimate Edition includes

The Ultimate Edition is a paid bundle built around the full game and its major premium content. Its confirmed package includes the Car Pass, VIP Membership, Formula Drift Car Pack, Best of Bond Car Pack, Welcome Pack, Fortune Island, and LEGO Speed Champions expansion.

Fortune Island adds a separate island environment with extreme terrain, treasure-hunt riddles, trailblazer challenges, and mountain-focused driving. LEGO Speed Champions moves the festival into LEGO Valley, combining brick-built scenery with dedicated events and LEGO versions of recognizable performance cars.

The commercial reality matters for new PC players: the game and its additional content are no longer sold through the main digital storefronts. This is a licensing-related delisting, not a conversion to free-to-play and not a replacement edition with a new official name.

PC features and control options

The Steam version supports Steam Cloud, Steam Achievements, cross-platform multiplayer, online co-op, online PvP, and Family Sharing. It also requires a linked Xbox Live account when first launched through Steam. Progress on Steam is separate from saves made on other platforms because cross-save is not supported between Steam and Xbox or Windows versions.

Full controller remapping is available on the Windows PC version, with multiple custom profiles for different driving preferences. Keyboard controls are supported, and the game is designed around gamepad play, but racing wheels are also officially supported.

Wheel users receive configurable force feedback, steering options, pedal settings, and device profiles. Forza Support specifically documents PC wheel setup and tuning, including support for changing input mappings when a device axis is assigned incorrectly. Multi-USB device support is also documented for the Windows version.

The Steam storefront lists sixteen supported interface and subtitle languages, including English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese-Brazil, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Czech, Hungarian, Turkish, and both Simplified and Traditional Chinese. Full audio is available in a smaller subset of languages.

Who should play Forza Horizon 4?

This is a strong fit for players who want an approachable open-world racer with a large garage, varied event types, extensive tuning, exploration, and online driving. It works particularly well for players who prefer switching between serious races, stunt hunting, car collecting, and relaxed road trips instead of following one fixed career path.

The game is less suitable for players seeking a strict motorsport simulation, licensed circuit championships, realistic race procedure, or a currently supported digital storefront purchase. Its handling sits between arcade accessibility and simulation detail, with assists available for casual drivers and enough tuning depth for more technical players.

Players who want a newer open-world festival structure can compare its shared-world racing with modern open-world Horizon-style racing in Forza Horizon 5, although that page is a separate game entry and not a substitute for the delisted Ultimate Edition.

Similar open-world racing games on PC

For a slower road-trip structure built around vehicle ownership, exploration, and online cruising, open-world touring games such as Test Drive Unlimited 2 offer a different interpretation of driving freedom. Its emphasis is more lifestyle-oriented and less focused on seasonal festival events.

Players who prefer sharper street-racing progression and detailed drift-oriented tuning can also look at underground open-world racers like CarX Street. That comparison is useful because CarX Street puts more weight on club races, drifting, and performance builds, while Forza Horizon 4 spreads its attention across many event types and driving surfaces.

Forza Horizon 4 remains distinctive because its shared British map, synchronized seasons, car-specific mastery, community activities, and broad mix of racing and exploration are designed as one connected festival rather than separate modes.

Forza Horizon 4 Ultimate Edition FAQ

Is Forza Horizon 4 Ultimate Edition still available to buy digitally?

No. Forza Horizon 4 and its additional content were delisted from Steam and the Microsoft Store. Players who already own the game or a valid license can continue downloading and playing it.

Has Forza Horizon 4 Ultimate Edition been renamed?

No verified official rebrand replaces the name Forza Horizon 4 Ultimate Edition. The important current change is its delisted storefront status, not a new edition name.

What does the Ultimate Edition contain?

It includes the full game, Car Pass, VIP Membership, Formula Drift Car Pack, Best of Bond Car Pack, Welcome Pack, Fortune Island, and LEGO Speed Champions.

Does Forza Horizon 4 support multiplayer on PC?

Yes. PC players can use online co-op, online PvP, and cross-platform multiplayer. The game also supports solo play and offline driving for owners with the required installation and account access.

Can I play Forza Horizon 4 with a racing wheel?

Yes. Official PC support covers compatible racing wheels, force feedback, custom mappings, steering adjustments, and wheel-specific tuning options.

Does the Steam version share saves with Xbox?

No. Steam progress is separate from existing Xbox or Windows saves because cross-save is not supported between those versions. Cross-platform multiplayer remains available.