"What an insane screw up": Xbox itself leaks 'Forza Horizon 6' PC files in full a week before launch — and pirates already cracked it

Have you ever made a mistake? Did that mistake cost you potentially millions of dollars? I'm guessing no, but that's what happened this week with Xbox's Playground Games.

Playground Games' upcoming Forza Horizon 6 is doubtless set to be one of, if not the biggest launch of Xbox's 2026, perhaps rivaled only by Call of Duty later this year (if it's good, that is). The arcade-style racer is set in Japan, one of the most-requested locations ever, and promises a boat load (car load?) of new features and systems. Sadly, though, the launch has suffered an inadvertent accident of potentially biblical proportions.

Spotted by users on social media and in our own XB2 Discord, someone at Microsoft seems to have uploaded PC pre-load Forza Horizon 6 files to Steam without encryption. Users were able to grab the files, and a PC crack followed. As of writing, it seems the encryption on Steam has been re-enabled, but that's not before the game's files in their entirety began spreading across piracy sites. I was able to find at least one user literally streaming the game live on Twitch before genuine purchasers can even download the game.

This is not the first time major games have leaked early this way. @Videotech above noted that Death Stranding 2 also fell short of a similar mistake, with pirated versions of the game available in full before launch.

Forza Horizon 6 is a heavily online-skewing game, and even if you're banned from Xbox's servers for running the cracked version, you'll still be able to play the game offline, according to those who have grabbed it.

Links to the Forza Horizon 6 files immediately began circulating on piracy forums, including on Reddit. Reddit's legal team has been removing links to the files per requests from Microsoft, but as they say, the internet never really forgets.

It's a pretty epic screw-up likely to put a dent in Forza Horizon 6's profitability at a time when Xbox needs revenue more than ever.

Microsoft's recent financials showed how Xbox has been struggling, with hardware sales and game purchases showing declines. Xbox has been rocked by a variety of industry-wide issues, including impacts from massive price increases in memory, the Trump administration's tariff regime harming U.S. businesses, and generational behavioral changes. Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha are not becoming traditional core gamers, and that's a huge problem for the traditional console platforms.

Forza Horizon has long been one of the few big bright spots on Xbox's balance sheet, racking up huge player counts and conversions every time it launches. Today's piracy snafu is not going to stop the Forza train (car?) from achieving massive successes, but it's a needless and potentially costly mistake at a time when Xbox can't really afford it.

Forza Horizon 6 launches in full on May 19, 2026, for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox Game Pass, Steam, and Xbox PC, with a PlayStation version slated for later in the year.

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