It's frustrating and unnecessary.
Forza Horizon 5 is now available on PS5 through early access, and mandatory Microsoft Account linking thoroughly ruins the overall experience, especially if you’ve played the game before on Xbox or PC.
Worse yet, my own experience was so bad that I ended up buying Forza Horizon 5 on Windows PC via Steam to see if the same was true on that platform, and it certainly is.
Allow me to break it all down.
Limited access to your digital licenses
If you’ve purchased Forza Horizon 5 on the Microsoft Store, you’re given one license to play it per account. That is, you can’t play Horizon 5 on Xbox Series X at the same time you’re playing it on your PC via the Xbox App. That in itself makes sense as you’re given cross-save and cross-progression support on both platforms; it’s effectively the same game no matter where you’re playing.
Despite being offered on a platform separate from the Xbox ecosystem, account linking on PS5 or Steam means your paid copy of Forza Horizon 5 on PlayStation or on Steam is treated in exactly the same manner. That is to say that you can’t play Forza Horizon 5 on your Xbox Series X at the same time as on your PS5, or at the same time as on Steam. Hell, if you’ve been playing Horizon 5 on Xbox or Steam just before trying to play and link on PS5, you’ll be treated with an error message that states you’ll need to wait for two minutes before trying again.
While limiting play to one license makes sense on Microsoft’s own platforms, it doesn’t when you add licensing on PS5 or Steam, platforms that Microsoft does not own. It’s more infuriating if you’ve paid twice, or even three times, for the game. I mean, I could pay for Assassin’s Creed Shadows on Xbox, PS5, and Steam and play the game at the same time on all platforms if I wanted to (not that I would, but my point still stands).
All this is especially true when players don’t gain access to cross-progression and your game instance is, for the most part, entirely separated (but more on that situation soon).
I asked Microsoft why access was limited in this manner and didn’t receive a response at the time of writing.
Account linking is buggy
In the time I’ve had with Forza Horizon 5 on PS5, I’ve had to relink my Microsoft Account four times. This might be because I was playing on two PS5s, or it could also have come up because I was playing back and forth on Xbox and PS5 to check on licensing. Regardless, it’s annoying to have to keep going to a website and then my Microsoft Authenticator to relink before I can play.
I’ve asked Microsoft if this is a known issue, and if a fix is on the way, but I didn’t receive a response at the time of writing.
Cross-progression, but not
Forza Horizon 5 has the poorest implementation of cross-progression that I’ve ever seen. For the most part, your in-game work on Xbox doesn’t factor into your in-game PlayStation or Steam experience. The sole implementation of cross-progression serves to show you what you’ve done in the past, but doesn’t reward you for it.
Let’s use bonus boards as an example. After smashing through one on PS5 or on Steam, you’ll receive a progress counter — two of the total boards, let’s say — before a leaderboard system compares your progress to that of a rival. The problem is, if you’ve smashed more boards on Xbox, that’s the number that’s used for that leaderboard.
In my case, I’ve smashed six boards on PlayStation, but I’m getting told I’ve smashed hundreds in-game without any actual reward for doing so. It’s a small gripe, sure, but nonetheless frustrating to have what you’ve already accomplished rubbed in your face without any actual purpose.
These cross-progression issues also lead me into my next point…
No Trophy and Achievement auto-sync
It’s ridiculous for this all to be happening on the back of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, in which account linking is optional between Xbox and PlayStation. While Indiana Jones has the same licensing issues that I’ve detailed above, I let that go because cross-progression — of a sort — mended that wound.
While your saves don’t carry between Xbox and PlayStation in Indiana Jones, Trophy and Achievement progression auto-sync in either direction. You can play your separate saves on either platform — or rather, you have to as cross-saves aren’t supported either — but you’ll nonetheless be rewarded for your work (and multiple purchases) on both platforms.
Over on Steam, linking your Microsoft Account inside Halo The Master Chief Collection will (at least) unlock Steam Achievements provided you’ve already unlocked them inside Master Chief Collection on Xbox. Account linking is also required to play Master Chief Collection on Steam.
Over on Forza Horizon 5 on PS5 and Steam, Trophy and Achievement lists are completely separate from those on Xbox, despite the need to link accounts. You’re going to be playing from scratch, despite limited cross-progression reminding you that you’ve done this all before.
I’ve also asked Microsoft for further comment on this matter, but didn’t receive a response at the time of writing.
Little to no PS5 enhancements
Prepare to be disappointed if you’re expecting Forza Horizon 5 to offer DualSense haptic feedback, or to leverage the power of the PS5 Pro.
Just like on Xbox Series X, Forza Horizon 5 offers Performance mode at 4K resolution and 60 frames-per-second (FPS), or 4K resolution (with lessened visuals) and 30 FPS in Quality mode.
On PS5 Pro, you get another couple enhancements, as “Quality mode adds ray traced car reflections to Races and Free Roam, while Performance mode focuses on improving rendering performance, with higher fidelity graphics at 60FPS,” Microsoft also confirmed.
While framerates are unlocked in single-player mode on PC — and this makes sense as uncapped frames on specific devices in multiplayer would give those players an advantage — it doesn’t look like PS5 Pro will offer any further enhancements apart from the ray tracing detailed above.
DualSense haptic feedback is non-existent, with Microsoft stating that Forza Horizon 5 mirrors Xbox functionality and merely supports “vibration function and trigger effect on DualSense and DualSense Edge controllers, for higher fidelity feel of wheel slip, threshold braking, and surface changes.”
In short, if you want cool driving haptics, look over to Gran Turismo.
In short, the only way I’d encourage a PlayStation owner — or a Steam own — to buy Forza Horizon 5 is if they’d never touched it on Xbox or on Windows PC via the Xbox App previously. Even then, it’s a tough sell because that person may have to go ahead and create a Microsoft Account for the express purpose of playing.
This ridiculous, mandatory need to link accounts didn’t work for Sony when it came to Helldivers 2 on PC, to the point that Sony actually pulled the requirement from subsequent releases. The problems stated above are more than enough reason for Microsoft to pull this same requirement from Forza Horizon 5 and to abandon it in future releases. It’s unnecessary.
Honestly, the biggest sin here is that there’s no actual benefit in linking your accounts. Instead, there are myriad, detrimental reasons why doing so will harm your experience.
And before I go: Forza Horizon 5 itself remains a great game. I mean, Alice gave it a 10/10 in our review. It’s just a shame that all this stuff around it is occurring.
Forza Horizon 5 is currently available on Windows PC via the Microsoft Store and Steam, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, and Xbox Series X, also part of Xbox Game Pass. It heads to PS5 from 29 April 2025, unless you pay more for early access.
 |
Forza Horizon 59 November 2021, 29 April 2025 (PS5)PC PS5 Xbox One Xbox Series S & X
|
This article may contain affiliate links, meaning we could earn a small commission if you click-through and make a purchase. Stevivor is an independent outlet and our journalism is in no way influenced by any advertiser or commercial initiative.
