The acclaimed indie arcade racer Horizon Chase and its enhanced port, Horizon Chase Turbo, will no longer be available to purchase from June 1st. That timing seems no accident. Horizon Chase studio Aquiris is owned by Epic Games, and Epic Games laid off more than 1,000 employees just as this announcement came down.
What makes this delisting unusual is the absence of any obvious reason for it. Horizon Chase Turbo is a pure arcade racer with no licensed vehicles and has tracks like 'Morning Walk' and 'Asphalt and Sunshine', so there wouldn't be costs associated with using real world racing circuits like Monaco or Mount Panorama. Horizon Chase Turbo has no online component either. These are typically the licensing headaches that force games offline. Developed by Brazilian studio Aquiris Game Studio, Horizon Chase is heavily inspired by retro 16-bit games like Top Gear, with vibrant visuals, global locations and fast-paced gameplay and features a soundtrack by the legendary Barry Leitch, who composed soundtracks for the original Top Gear titles.
The practical impact is limited but frustrating. Existing owners will still be able to re-download their copies. But prospective players face a narrowing window. Those who haven't bought Horizon Chase Turbo before this date can still buy a physical copy on PS4 or Xbox Series X|S, but new copies no longer appear to be in print, so the only option will be to track down a used copy.
Following an investment made back in 2022, Epic Games fully acquired Brazilian studio Aquiris, the developers behind Horizon Chase Turbo, and the studio was renamed Epic Games Brazil and tasked to 'create groundbreaking content and social experiences within Fortnite'. That transition, announced in 2023, signalled a clear strategic shift. The studio that once innovated in indie racing would now feed Epic's largest franchise.
The real question is whether delisting an old game made before the acquisition serves any actual business purpose or whether it reflects something else: the aftermath of corporate cost-cutting that has left smaller studios without the people needed to manage legacy products. One possibility is that Epic's finance team views any game not generating ongoing revenue as a liability during a cash crunch. Another is simpler institutional indifference. A completed game with no active user base, no live service costs, and minimal ongoing maintenance might just be classified as clutter.
There is a counterargument here worth taking seriously. Digital storefronts do impose real costs on publishers: hosting, payment processing, age classification compliance, and some level of ongoing customer support. For a game that likely generates minimal revenue, those costs might exceed the benefit. A small studio with limited resources might reasonably prioritise its current work over maintaining a back catalogue.
Yet something worth noting: Horizon Chase 2 will still be available to purchase and download. If delisting was purely about removing old games, the sequel would follow. The selective removal suggests something more deliberate. And the timing, tied directly to layoff announcements, invites obvious questions about whether Aquiris was asked to shed legacy titles as part of cost reduction demands.
The broader issue here is structural. Aquiris was acquired by Epic Games in 2023, which meant the studio's original work became the property of a larger organisation with different priorities. Developers sold their expertise and their past creations into a corporate structure where legacy content competes for resources with active franchises. When budget cuts come, it's unclear why a beloved but completed indie game gets priority over Fortnite cosmetics.
For players, the lesson is familiar and unsettling: owning games digitally is conditional. You can download what you bought, but new players cannot. Physical copies remain possible on some platforms, but they are disappearing from retail. The game itself is not being deleted from the internet. But the official, easy path to access it is closing on June 1st.