Forza Horizon's car roster has been on a downward spiral

Forza Horizon Forza Horizon 5 FH5 Discussion
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Because i’m extremely bored nowadays, I have been slowly filling out a self-made Google spreadsheet of my dream car roster for a Forza Horizon game. Yes, an entire roster. Not just a wishlist. As of writing this i’m about 230 cars in featuring ones that are already in, used to be, and have yet to be in a Forza Horizon game.

Doing research mostly on the Forza Wiki, I’m honestly beyond shocked at many of the beyond cool cars that have gone missing since Motorsport 4 and Horizon 1. I can honestly say that’s when the actual car roster peaked for Forza games and frankly it’s more than a massive downgrade when you look at what we have now. Seriously, I’m not joking when I say every pre-2012 car on my car wishlist was in FM4.

The weird thing is there’s plenty of cars featured in older Forza titles that probably wouldn’t be hard to add back in again. Would Ford really make a big fuss about Forza bringing a car they ALREADY LICENSED in the past back? It’s possible, one of the better parts of FH4’s post-launch cars is the very slowly started bringing back old cars that haven’t been in the franchise for a while (and were subsequently removed from FH5’s launch for seemingly no reason at all).

While the muscle cars we’ve been recieving with this Hot Wheels season are nice, I doubt they’re going to keep this up. So much cars have been thrown in for little to no reason besides corporate collaborations and product placement. The Mustang Mach-E and that new electronic rally raid crap coming this Forza Monthly come to mind. (at this point the EV stuff feels like straight up propaganda now)

I genuinely believe that PGG rarely pays companies for car licenses these days. It’s the opposite way around now. Forza Horizon is such a massive brand that companies come TO THEM now and slide some money to scan whatever boring/overpriced/limited production hunk of junk to shove into the game.

The bias for certain manufacturers is obvious too. For every Pontiac or Honda we have eight Porches/Fords/McLarens. I was super ticked off when the 765LT was revealed. Not because it was yet another bland supercar padding out the roster, but because how FAST it was added. The 765LT was revealed like what, a year ago?! And there’s been cars the community has been requesting FOR YEARS still have no sign of ever coming to the game.

Please, ask yourself. When’s the last time you were GENUINELY excited for a car to be added into the game? Not just happy or pumped, genuinely cheering. The last time that happened to me was in 2019 when they announced Toyota was coming back, and that doesn’t even count since it was Toyota not letting them be in the game, not PGG ignoring them.

There’s so much wrong with Forza nowadays I honestly just wish I could toss Forza aside and afford an actual enthusiast car of my own, but I can’t, as many of the other young adults interested in cars who are getting completely screwed over by this hyperinflated market.

That car wishlist we have on the forum is beyond useless. Nothing on it has been added besides the supercars and hypercars that would’ve been added anyway.

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I was relatively excited about the 2CV and the Peel P50. I was excited about the monster truck until it turned out we could only drive it in the Showdown.

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We’ve tracked thousands of car models requested by the community for games that have always had a roster of fewer than a thousand - it’s inevitable that many players won’t get the cars they’ve requested. It’s important for everyone to understand that.

Forza has stated over the years many times that wishlisting is just one part of game development - development time, car access, game design, priorities, licensing, developing and testing all factor into the equation. As you pointed out with Toyota, it’s not always Forza’s decision even if a car is of interest.

The BMW M8, DeLorean, Audi RS5 Coupe, Audi RS3 sedan, Ford SVT F-Series F-150 Lightning, Dodge Magnum, and muscle cars appeared high on the community’s most requested list and have been added. It’s not just supercars and hypercars.

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I requested the Alfa 155 Q4 and it appeared in 4, then the Jaguar XJR-15 as the barn find I requested it to be in 5.

Such a cool surprise because it was my first one and I had no idea.

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I still can’t believe we lost Alfa Romeo, Fiat and Lancia. Lancia rally cars were my go-to for Dirt races in FH4.

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How about the Ford Thunderbolt and Dodge Coronet 440 drag cars? They showed back up in FM7 and then gone again. AMC The Machine? I’ve said this in another thread but the list for Pontiac is sad. But I guarantee it’s due to the license holders (in the case of Pontiac, it’s GM) not wanting to promote a “dead” brand. Olds, Pontiac, AMC, Mercury, Plymouth…0 small block cars except from Ford ('65 Mustang, Boss 302).

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If I may ask, what’s Turn 10 and Playground Games’s reasoning for cutting cars that aren’t obstructed by licensing issues? Because my own personal wish list is around 250 cars, but 3/5 of that list are all cars that have appeared in the Xbox One era, and most of the 3/5s are all from manufacturers currently present in Horizon 5.

More to the point, why do they take cars out of the game, but then add them back in via the Festival Playlist? Do they not have a large backlog of new vehicles to add? Is it a storage issue? Are they aware that long time players are tired of seeing cars absent at launch being patched in later?

Out of all things both teams of developers are guilty of, this behavior of taking cars away, adding them later, and locking them up behind time walls is infuriating, and some transparency on this matter would be appreciated, and I think this goes for a lot of people, not just on these forums.

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How do we know they’re not? Being licensed for one game does not necessarily mean they’re licensed for future games.

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Theoretically, all cars have to be licensed, and those licenses have to be renewed. It was the case when FM and FH didn’t have Porsche for a while (exclusivity with NFS I believe). With the defunct manufactures, they rights are still owned by someone (Pontiac = GM, Plymouth = Chrysler/FCA) and they need to license the rights to the cars “likeness” as well as the nameplate. I assume that is why we are missing Lancia/Fiat/Alfa now.

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That argument would make more sense for brand new cars, or manufacturers as a whole. I doubt any developer paid extra money to have sole dibs on the 2011 BMW Z4 sDrive35is.

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I’m aware of that, thank you. Believe me, if there’s one person who has an inkling on how licensing works other Forza staff, its mean. What I am asking is what determines which cars are cut and/or added later, because, like I said with @Ti_Hsien, I doubt manufacturers are charging extra for non-iconic models like the BMW Z4 sDrive35is, or the TVR Tuscan S.

Now if you told me there was to be a new Mad Max game, and the 1973 Ford Falcon GT was suddenly unavailable, then I’d understand something like that.

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Maybe they’re not charging extra - maybe they’re just denying rights on particular models.

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I doubt there is anything extra being paid, but I do believe some manufactures would prefer “new” models being licensed over old, defunct nameplates. Chrysler has Chargers and Challengers to sell, no one is buying a Plymouth anytime soon. Same with GM/Chevrolet and Ford. They want the “new” thing out there to influence “future” prospect consumers. If the auto industry had their way, we would have nothing but SUVs and EVs…

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Then by that logic, we would have nothing but post 2018 vehicles and an actually updated car roster.

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If the extremes were all there were and the land of compromise didn’t exist…

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So, again, hypothetical scenario, Porsche allowed them to finally re-add the Porsche 928 GTS in Horizon 4, but then said no for the second time at launch for Horizon 5 a few months later?

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The only people who really know would be those negotiating, right? All we can do is speculate, but it isn’t outside the realm of possibility.

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Well, that’s why I’m asking Max, then we may get an actual answer. We probably won’t, but we’ll see.

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Of course concessions are made. Out of all of the available cars (not including Hot Wheels). How many are newer than 2015? How many are older?

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Licensing cars vs advertising marketing cars on video games.

Why do we get the cars we get?

Does anyone think McLaren ever sold a car because it appeared in a video game? I doubt it.

Anyone think Mazda, or Ford, or Toyota, ever sold a car because it appeared in a video game? I doubt It.

I have not a clue as to the cost associated with licensing fees. But I doubt it’s too much or the car count wouldn’t be as high as it is in the game.

We get cars when and if playground feels like putting them in. If they happen to coincide with someone’s suggestion that’s just a lucky roll of the dice and nothing more.

Furthermore (send me money) if you did buy a car (send me money) based on playing a video game (send me money) you’re highly susceptible to (send me money) subliminal advertising messages (send me money) and easily (send me money) manipulated by their (send me money) advertising practices.

(Send me money)