The recent release of Forza Horizon 4 has been nothing but a success, with a 92 rating on Metacritic, and two million players in its first week. It's the most polished racer Microsoft has put together yet, and highly deserving of its praise.
One post-launch area that has suffered a little, however, is multiplayer, more specifically the ranked league play. Thankfully, it hasn't gone unnoticed, and Microsoft is working quickly to remedy the problem.
The problem with Forza Horizon 4 ranked play
Forza Horizon 4's multiplayer mode is a lot of fun, and generally speaking there haven't been any issues that we've seen or that have been widely reported when it comes to the casual team adventure modes. Whether on your own or in a group it's easy to get a game, and performance has been strong in my experience without any noticeable server issues.
Ranked is another kettle of fish entirely. Since day one to this point I haven't been able to get into a single ranked game. And I'm not alone. There are also issues present where people who do get accepted into a game immediately get kicked out, sometimes suffering an in-game ban for abandonment.
ranked play on forza still disconnects me then bans me for "leaving"... seriously... still...ranked play on forza still disconnects me then bans me for "leaving"... seriously... still...— Lt Zonda [SC] (@LTZONDA) October 7, 2018October 7, 2018
Ranked play requires ten games to be completed in order to qualify for a league, but right now that's going to be a stretch, leaving those sweet rewards unclaimed.
Microsoft is working on a fix
Naturally, we reached out to Microsoft to raise the issue and received this from a spokesperson:
"We're aware some users are having difficulty connecting to ranked multiplayer in "Forza Horizon 4" and are working to address this as quickly as possible."
There's nothing specific on exactly what's causing the problem, and considering the player base and the quality of rewards available in ranked it's hard to imagine that lack of interest is behind it. What is certain is Playground Games' commitment to post-launch support, so hopefully, this gets rolled out soon enough.
Coming up in Forza Horizon 4 is the launch of the route creator tool later this month, ahead of the first expansion pack which is currently slated to release in December. The game is available right now for $60 for the standard edition, or $100 for the ultimate edition which includes a host of additional content. Alternatively, the standard edition is available to play for Xbox Game Pass subscribers.
