A player's cloud sync issues with Forza Horizon 6 once again highlights Xbox customer support failings
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Despite being bought from Steam, Microsoft's cloud sync has locked a player out of their game. . | Credit: Windows Central
I'm just going to say it as plain as I can: Microsoft customer support reallyneeds to improve. We have, of course, had the recent case where someone being locked out of their account went viral on social media, which seemingly magically prompted some action.
Now, over on the Steam Deck subreddit there's an exhausting tale of a player who has been locked out of playing Forza Horizon 6 for 70 days over an issue with cloud sync. And guess what? Xbox support apparently can do nothing to help.
The detailed explanation goes through the entire ordeal, but the problem boils down to an issue with Forza Horizon 6 syncing to Microsoft's servers, not Steam. The game crashed and appears to have created a server-side block on the sync completing, and now leaves the game unplayable as soon as it tries to connect.
I can already hear some that would point at the Steam Deck being the problem. But for starters, the game is Steam Deck verified, and user reports on ProtonDB for the game are pretty good. But games crash on Windows, too.
The alarming part here seems to be that what's happened could, in theory, happen to anyone who bought the game on Steam and doesn't have access to an Xbox to fix it.
Because the short end to the long story is that the final official support 'solution' is to use an Xbox console to delete the cloud save. Which is fine, if you have an Xbox console. Chances are if you bought Forza Horizon 6 on Steam, though, maybe you don't? Either that or you hate money since it's Xbox Play Anywhere through the Xbox App on Windows.
Part of the frustration seems to be that neither the Forza nor Xbox support teams can delete this data on a player's behalf. I find it very hard to believe that a company the size of Microsoft with such an intricate web of servers and cloud support wouldn't be able to do this. It is, however, more convenient to try and pass it down to us to sort out.
It also potentially highlights a weakness within the Xbox cloud system itself, but that's a discussion for another day. But it wouldn't be a stretch to hope that if a sync fails, the system just falls back to the last one that didn't rather than locking up entirely.
Reading this whole drama is just disappointing. Either there are fundamental problems with Microsoft systems that need addressing, or, and I feel like this is probably more likely, customer support just isn't up to scratch.
I've had my own issues over the years with other areas of customer support within Microsoft, so I definitely don't think it's new. And let's be real, the chances of support agents being replaced by AI loom ever larger.
A cloud sync issue should not be able to block a player from playing the game they paid for. | Credit: Michael Hoglund
Fortunately, there is a potential way out, but it's not exactly what you'd call a solution. Many on the Reddit thread have suggested signing up for Game Pass and trying to utilize Xbox Cloud Gaming to see if that can help unblock the cloud sync.
Without an Xbox console handy, this is probably the only thing that could be tried, and it sounds like it could work , but the OP hasn't yet come back with an update. Even if it does, it's still some added expense and effort that shouldn't be needed.
Trying to access the cloud storage via the Xbox web app hasn't seemed to work, either, as if the game hasn't been played through cloud streaming in the last 30 days, nothing appears. Likewise, the original poster hasn't had any joy using the Xbox App on Windows 11.
But it's yet another tale after years and years of tales of poor support from Xbox/Microsoft when it comes to technical issues blocking players from their content. It should not take someone going onto the internet and going viral to prompt action.
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