Over the years, we have seen various awkward moments from Microsoft. Be it in the form of hardware launches or software, or even video games, for that matter. And it looks like the company is kicking off this year with yet another oops moment. Forza Horizon 6, one of the highly anticipated Xbox games, has just leaked almost 10 days before its official release date. What makes the entire story even more awkward is that there was no cyber attack that led to this moment; instead, it was Microsoft’s own fault. Let’s take a look at what went down.
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First and foremost, for those wondering how Forza Horizon 6 even got leaked in the first place, now that’s where things get interesting. Most might think that there could have been a cyberattack, because of which the game’s file got leaked. However, what makes the story embarrassing for Microsoft here is that this was entirely because of their own negligence.
As you might be aware, before a game’s release, developers have to upload the game’s data onto Steam servers for things like pre-load and early access options. But it looks like someone at Microsoft messed up during this process. Reports suggest that the game files that were uploaded to Steam were completely unencrypted.
This allowed the game files to be available to players 10 days before the official release date. Gamers have not only been playing it, but many were even seen streaming the game on platforms like Twitch. That’s even before the early access window, which many players have paid extra money for.
In case you’re wondering how exactly Microsoft ended up responding to this situation, so far, they haven’t released any official statements yet. Though chances are, we might hear something from the developers later on.
But till then, players who were playing the leaked build of the game and tried going online by connecting to the Xbox servers have been banned for nearly 8,000 years. People have even reported hardware bans. Xbox got a lot of hate for this online on platforms like X and Reddit, where people suggested that this is entirely on Microsoft and banning players is not the right solution.
Aside from that, though, Microsoft is actively trying to remove the existence of the leaked build. Reddit has already been contacted to delete all the comments sharing the links; however, given that it has already seen the light of the internet, the chances of it getting completely wiped out are next to impossible. Let’s see what further actions Microsoft will take in the days to come.
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