Forza Horizon 3 Preloading on PC Running Into Issues

Early access to Forza Horizon 3 begins tomorrow, September 23, at 12 AM local time. Unfortunately for those on PC, a number of people are encountering download issues when attempting to preload it.

There are numerous reports on Forza's forums and subreddit of players having their downloads reset. That's a real problem for a game that's 49 GB in size, not to mention one that people may have paid extra for to play early--the $100 Ultimate Edition grants four days' early access, among other things.

There seem to be several different issues causing this to occur. For some, download progress is erased after resuming a paused download. For others, it happens on its own as the download approaches completion. Others still run into problems when Windows 10 installs updates, interrupting the download. In all cases, these people are being asked to redownload a huge game from scratch, which is a big ask--some people have data caps, while others have download speeds that make this task a multi-day time investment.

Not everyone has been locked out of downloading Horizon 3 on PC, but this is no less of an inconvenience for those having the issue.

This is the first release of a proper new Forza game on PC. It's also only the second game to support Xbox Play Anywhere, which allows you to buy a digital copy on Xbox One or PC and receive access on both platforms.

We've contacted Microsoft to see if there's an estimate for when a fix might be released. It seems the company is aware of the issue, as a Turn 10 staffer posted on the Forza forums saying the errors are being investigated. It's described as a "high-priority issue that's being investigated."

Horizon 3 officially launches for PC and Xbox One next Tuesday, September 27. It's quite good, as you can read about in GameSpot's review. A demo is available now on Xbox One that will come to PC sometime after launch.