With over a week left until its official release, the entirety of 'Forza Horizon 6' has been leaked. The cause is believed to be a failure to apply encryption during the Steam preload file upload process.

On the 10th (local time), SteamDB, a site that tracks Steam game data, detected a recent update to the Forza Horizon 6 Steam page. While the update added files for the game's preload, it was discovered that they were uploaded to the server without encryption. Typically, preload files are distributed as encrypted builds that unlock at the official release time, but that step was omitted.

The leaked files total approximately 155GB, representing the full game. Consequently, the extracted Steam preload build has circulated through piracy communities and illegal file-sharing sites. As the game reportedly lacks robust anti-piracy measures like Denuvo, it appears to be relatively easy to run without complex bypass techniques. While online features are inaccessible due to server-side authentication, gameplay footage has already begun circulating on social media.

This marks the second time this year that a game has leaked early due to Steam preload issues. Previously, the PC version of 'Death Stranding 2' also saw its full content leaked before release due to a similar preload encryption failure.

The biggest victims of this incident are the players who purchased the game legitimately. The game is set to launch on May 19, with Premium Edition buyers gaining access four days early on the 15th. However, due to this leak, legitimate buyers are now in a position where they will be playing the game much later than those accessing it illegally.

This incident has also brought the build management systems of the publisher and developer under scrutiny. Denuvo, often cited as a powerful anti-piracy DRM, has long faced user backlash for causing performance issues. Recently, with bypasses involving virtualization becoming more common, an increasing number of game companies have opted not to use it. Given this, security until launch was paramount, yet it was clearly not maintained.

As this incident affects not only users but also the developer's future sales, rigorous verification before uploading builds is essential. It remains to be seen what changes Microsoft and Playground Games will implement in their build security procedures.