Is it True?

Is it true that coming January all the Forza servers are getting shut down except for Horizon, FM5, and Horizon 2?

No.

If the servers are going to be shut down Turn 10 will announce it beforehand in the news section of this site.

Not sure where you heard that, but it’s a certain no. Forza 4 is way, way too populated still for them to shut the servers down. If anything maybe the auction house for Forza 3 and 4 will be thrown out, but even then I doubt it.

I suppose I should mention this… I believe it was during the 2013 Xbox E3 presentation that Microsoft mentioned they would guarantee Xbox Live support for the 360 until 2016. At any point from 2016 onwards, the 360 may lose Xbox Live connectivity. (I do not have a link to that announcement at this time. I’ll try to find one…)

I speculate that T10 will shut down the servers for last-gen Forza games only when Xbox Live support for the 360 has ended.

Original Xbox Live was up until 2010 despite that system having a far, far smaller install base than the 360. Plus the latest Call of Duty sold more 360 copies than it did PS4 or Xbox One copies. You don’t need to worry about Live for 360 going away for a very, very long time; I’d say 5 years more, minimum, before we start hearing serious talks of Live for 360 getting axed.

Oh, I agree completely. I just wanted to point out what Microsoft had mentioned. And if you look closely at what they said, they only said “support” for the 360 would end sometime in 2016. For all we know, maybe they just mean warranties and things of that nature will no longer be supported, but the 360 will still have Xbox Live. And it makes absolutely no business sense to kill off your biggest money maker, so I doubt they’re going to just suddenly abandon the 360.

EDIT: I still can’t find an official article from MS regarding the 2016 “end of support,” but here’s one from IGN if anyone cares to read it.

Ya I’m still being prompted to renew my membership for live on 360. What would be the point of shutting down the servers if publishers are still producing multiplayer games for 360?

Gold Membership carries across to XB1 as well.

I Hate When Servers For FM4 Gets Shut Down!