Drive at Your Own Risk: Microsoft Issues Lifetime Bans for Running Leaked Forza Horizon 6 Build

A week before the official launch of Forza Horizon 6, a working version of the game unexpectedly appeared online. The leak was caused by an unencrypted build that was mistakenly uploaded to Steam. Pirates quickly took advantage of the situation: game files began to spread on the internet, and some users gained access to the racing exclusive before its release, scheduled for May 19.

While game cracks have long become commonplace, cases of full builds being leaked before release are extremely rare. For developers, such leaks become a serious problem — especially when it comes to a major Microsoft release.

Playground Games studio has already reacted to the situation and confirmed that a working build of Forza Horizon 6 indeed got online. The developers warned that strict penalties are being applied against players who ran the leaked version — up to hardware-level bans and blocks across the entire Forza series.

In an official statement, the authors urged fans to wait for the full release on May 19 and not risk their accounts.

It is assumed that the working build was leaked by a journalist or blogger who may have gained access to the game before its release.