The entire series was positioned as Xbox's flagship racing franchise. The original Forza Motorsport launched on the original Xbox in 2005, but really took off with the release of Forza Motorsport 2 for the Xbox 360 in 2007. This might not seem like a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but if the history of video games has taught us anything so far it's that big publishers don't care about video game history, and that it's now up to users to preserve Forza Horizon 2. We asked Microsoft if it had any plans to make Forza Horizon 2 available to purchase by other means in the future, and it referred it us back to its original announcement. Similarly, in 2016, Microsoft stopped selling the original Forza Horizon right before the release of Forza Horizon 3. Forza Horizon 4 comes out the day after Microsoft plans to pull Forza Horizon 2 from its store. That’s all great, but it’s cold comfort for anyone new who wants to buy the game after October 1.
Microsoft is giving away the DLC for free, has put the game up as part of its subscription service (meaning subscribers can grab for no extra charge), and given the community advanced warning.