What you need to know
- Forza Horizon 5 is an excellent and well-received open-world racing game from Playground Games and Xbox Game Studios.
- The game has suffered from a variety of online multiplayer issues since launch, which Playground has been continually working on.
- The latest iteration of these efforts is the Dec. 14, 2021 hotfix update, which is rolling out now to all FH5 players.
- The hotfix includes several key fixes for online matchmaking, convoys, traffic cars, and overall game stability.
One of the year's biggest games is Forza Horizon 5, a critically-acclaimed open-world racing title from the talented team at Playground Games. While the game is beloved and relatively polished overall, its various online portions have come under fire from the FH5 community for instability, frequent bugs, and other issues preventing a great multiplayer experience. The latest effort from Playground to fix these issues is the newly released Dec. 14, 2021 hotfix update for Forza Horizon 5, which is rolling out now on all platforms.
This update is relatively minor, but still includes several important fixes targeting the areas players have expressed frustration, including online matchmaking, convoys, and traffic cars. There are also improvements to stability and crashes, which worsened after the Dec. 3, 2021 patch update earlier this month. The Dec. 7, 2021 hotfix did fix the most critical flaw of that larger patch update, but this hotfix aims to resolve even more.
The hotfix update is now available for Forza Horizon 5 across Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, and PC. On Xbox Series X, the update came out to ~850Mb, but may vary in size on other platforms. It's recommended that you install this hotfix as soon as possible if you've been experiencing any issues in FH5's online multiplayer.
It's also worth mentioning that Playground Games has once again communicated its knowledge about the ongoing issues many players are having completing several Festival Playlist challenges and objectives through the in-game Messages Center, and are working on a solution for the affected players. It's not clear what this solution looks like, yet, but something is in the works.
In case you missed it, the Forza Horizon 5 Festival Playlist just kicked of Series 2 with new challenges and cars to celebrate the holidays.
In our Forza Horizon 5 review, we concluded that FH5 is already one of the best Xbox racing games you can play, and this will only become more true over time. FH5 hasn't been free of bugs and issues, but Playground Games has been transparent about working on the various problems. If you want to learn more about what this open-world racer entails, be sure to check out our ultimate guide to Forza Horizon 5.
The full changelog for the Forza Horizon 5 Dec. 14, 2021 hotfix update includes:
Bug fixes
Game stability
- Various stability fixes
- Server stability improvements
Multiplayer
- Network improvements
- Convoy matchmaking improvements
- Fixed an issue with convoy members disappearing
- Fixed an issue with players trying to join another players server
Saves
- Fixed an issue with Direct Storage Issues on Series X|S
Other
- Freeroam car traffic improvements
The best open-world racer
Playground Games has delivered their latest masterpiece with Forza Horizon 5, which features the series' most diverse map and largest car list yet. Forza Horizon 5 somehow fulfills its ambitious promises to be the best open-world racer right now, and one of the best racing games in general.
All your gaming needs, in one subscription.
Is the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate the best value in all of gaming? It's possible. Ultimate bundles your Xbox Live Gold subscription, an Xbox Game Pass subscription for both Xbox consoles and Windows PCs, and Xbox Cloud Gaming for on-the-go. That means access to hundreds of games, with more added all the time, for a single monthly subscription cost.
