Forza Horizon 6 hasn’t even been released to early access owners yet, and some players have already been banned. Due to a recent error by developer Playground Games, the entire 155 GB game file was accidentally uploaded to Steam days before the official launch. This allowed thousands of players to access the game before they were supposed to, but a handful of players took things a step further than simply booting up a new save.
One player in particular decided it would be a good idea to attempt to mod Forza Horizon 6 by reportedly adding cheats using CheatEngine. Of course, this would hopefully get any player banned from the game, even after it’s officially released. However, it seems Playground Games is using this unfortunate situation to relay a message to all players who try to cheat.
According to TheGameVerse, the player who accessed Forza Horizon 6 and tried to cheat has been banned from the game until December 31, 9999.
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It’s unclear whether this massive ban is intended only for players who try to play unreleased games, akin to piracy, or if it is a punishment for anyone who attempts to install cheats in Forza Horizon 6. The message states the ban is for “Cheating/Unallowed Modding,” which could mean that anyone caught cheating will receive the same fate once the game officially launches on May 19.
However, it’s more likely the ban is due to the player pirating Forza Horizon 6 and then modding it, which could be seen as a double felony in the video game world. You never want to play a pirated game, but you especially don’t want to then turn around and mod that pirated game with cheats.
Regardless, though, you rarely see a ban of this length in any game, as the player who received the ban won’t be able to play the game for roughly eight thousand years. Naturally, this is essentially a lifetime ban from Forza Horizon 6, which means the player in question will have to find another way to play.
The same fate might await anyone else who tries to play the newest Forza game before the official release date. The pre-release version can still be seen on SteamDB as a “public branch” build, meaning there are still ways to download it and play the game immediately.
Of course, anyone who attempts to play early won’t be able to access any of the online mechanics that make up a majority of Forza Horizon 6’s content. All you’d be allowed to do is explore the map in an offline setting and take part in the story missions. While that might be tempting for some diehard Forza fans, is it really worth risking an eight-thousand-year ban?
As for anyone who wants to wait to play Forza Horizon 6 legitimately, make sure to check out our pieces on how to gain real early access to the game.
Published: May 11, 2026 12:00 pm