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One of the best open-world racing games seemed ready to die, but now it's back

After being pulled from stores four years ago, Forza Horizon 3 looked like it would disappear for good, but Playground is keeping it alive.

Racing games had a difficult time in 2024. Forza Horizon 4 was delisted from digital stores. Servers for The Crew were turned off for good. In the fast-paced world of new releases and yearly updates, some of the best and most beloved games just don't make the cut. But it's not all bad news. Despite also vanishing from online stores, Forza Horizon 3, the Australian-based open-world icon that PCGamesN called "the best racing game of its generation," is still with us. It looked like it was about to die, but Playground has swiftly stepped in.

open-world game on Monday January 6, one player reported that the livery, marketplace, clubs, and rivals menus were all inaccessible. Faced with the unstable online service – in the past an early indicator that the plug is about to be pulled entirely –  they took to Reddit to ask "is this the end for Forza 3?"

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But then, a sudden hope. 'PG_Alien,' the senior community manager at Forza Horizon developer Playground Games, saw the post and took notice. "Hey everyone," Alien replies. "Please check again as we have rebooted the servers and we're seeing positive responses in of traffic on the servers themselves."

Forza Horizon 3 servers rebooted: A comment from Forza Horizon developer Playground Games

After being called a "saint" by another Forza Horizon 3 fan, Alien says that they simply ed the concerns about servers being shut down to the rest of the Playground team, which promptly rebooted the online services. Especially in light of so many recent shut downs (players of Ubisoft's The Crew have Forza Horizon 3 review if you want to know why it's so good.

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