We’re coming up on a month since the release of Forza Horizon 5 and much of its online multiplayer functionality is still either outright broken or not working as intended, a fact that developer Playground Games is aware of.
A statement has been released by the company simply titled “An Update to the Community” which can be found on the Forza site here.
“We want to give you an update on the status of multiplayer issues in Forza Horizon 5. Since launch, we understand it’s been frustrating to play online, whether it’s with your friends or the wider community, due to numerous issues around matchmaking, connectivity and teaming up in Convoys. We hear you and we understand how you feel especially as socialization in Forza Horizon is an important aspect of the game,” the developer writes.
Playground Games then goes on to list the biggest pain points affecting players right now: Convoys, Horizon Arcade, The Eliminator, Horizon Open, Leaderboards and EventLab.
All of these multiplayer modes are core to the experience in Forza Horizon 5 but have been constantly and consistently problematic for the past few weeks.
Those who would say “well then just play the singleplayer” are ignorant to the way Forza Horizon 5, and many other Forza games, work.
The multiplayer components are baked into every aspect of the game design, especially when it comes to finishing limited-time events that reward the most sought after cars and other rewards. Modes like Forza Arcade and The Eliminator are pre-requisites for completing weekly and monthly challenges.
For example, for a previous week of challanges, players had to complete multiple objectives in The Eliminator, Forza Horizon’s version of a battle royale. That’s all fine and dandy, but the way players are eliminated from the game is by challenging other players and racing them to a finish line, but server issues make other players invisible.
Imagine something like Call of Duty tasking players with getting a certain number of kills but then all the players in a match are invisible.
Then there’s Forza Arcade, a co-op game mode that can be done casually by driving to a highlighted area on the map. Since launch this has been almost impossible because players have found themselves unable to see or interact with each other.
So what has Playground Games said in this statement about fixing all of this? Well nothing, really.
The entire statement boils down to “we know things are broken, we are working on fixing it”. It’s one of the most non-informative, lip service releases we’ve read in a while. Some kind of ETA on expected fixes or awarding of lost rewards would have gone a long way here.
Well that’s not entirely true. Players will be given 1 000 Forzathon Points in the next content update. This can usually buy you two weekly cars in the limited-time shop but overall it’s small compared to the lost time and potential amount of points players could have earned if things worked properly.
This is all doubly irritiating for two reasons: Forza Horizon 5 is a fantastic game on its own and many of these multiplayer modes have been in previous titles (especially Horizon 4) where they worked perfectly.
“While these are only some of the areas needing fixes in Forza Horizon 5 that we know about and are actively working on, we wanted to give visibility on these pressing issues so that you know that we hear you and improvements are on the way. Rest assured, your feedback is being heard as we work to improve the overall Forza Horizon 5 experience,” Playground Games adds.
