I know a lot of people are unhappy with the way that some of the new cars in FH5 are presented as “new”, when in reality, they were previously featured in at least FH4. I know that they should instead be in the Autoshow since the beggining. However, I have a theory as to why Playground games are recycling a lot of cars from previous games.
First of all, let’s begin with the fact that FH5 is going to have a longer lifespan that previous titles, and in fact, even when FH6 gets released, they will keep supporting FH5 for a couple more years (that assuming that the rumors that state that FH6 is going to be released in 2025 are true).
Now, the second point has to do with licensing new cars in the game. That takes quite a bit of time, and sometimes the deals don’t go as smoothly as planned. They have to go to the manufacturer, get into some form of agreement (which in most cases involves money), and also the manufacturer is the one who has the last word if a car gets licensed or not for several reasons.
Given the pandemic, that can be an indication that Playground Games is struggling to get new licensing deals from manufacturers, and since we have A LOT of cars from previous titles, they thought that the best idea is giving us new cars from time to time in order to give them time to get this licensing deals sorted out, and in the meantime, giving us cars from previous titles in order to fill the gaps when necesary.
I know that I look as I’m being apologetic with Playground Games, since they have overlooked a couple of things in the game, however, I find no other explanation as to why so much recycled cars other than “Playground is just being lazy”.
At the end of the day there’s not much to it. FH5 was pushed out quickly most likely due to XSX launch and delay of FM8. When things are pushed out quickly, sacrifices are made. In this case everything lol.
At the end of the day many users care about the car line up. While many others including myself could care less and think this game has a ridiculous amount of cars already. If you’re new to the game, which many players are then you would be oblivious to the fact we’re being drip feed the same cars.
QFT …of course the reason (partly at least) is so that everyone can have the few cars they really really want, which are widely different for all of us. I do like that there is such a variety
Vehicles are slowly recycled as one way to maintain long-term player interest. Microsoft wants as many players as possible during the 3-4 years of FH5’s prime time.
It would be one thing if Playground were recycling cars from Horizon 3 or finally introducing cars from Motorsport regularly. However, almost everything that is returning is from Horizon 4 (and should have never been cut to begin with), only 2 cars from Horizon 3 returned at launch, and only 3 cars have migrated from Motorsport.
Be careful. They’ll confuse the 67 Firebird with the Aztec that they added to FM6 iirc.
The rare stuff from prior games should be added, license them for series of games, not just one at a time I’d think. Cheaper that way net, and can’t believe they don’t do it that way.
3.0 CSL, 328 BMW examples that are missed amongst tons of others. Pacer is ugly, but awesome D drag car.
Believe me, the losses were quite huge. In my own personal car wish list, currently composed of 176 cars, 100 of them are cars cut from previous Forza games as far back as Motorsport 4. Playground has a massive stash of cars not tangled up in complex licensing issues, but refuses to add them back, and they make things worse but cutting even more cars out from the previous title. In short, when my wish list has this many “previous on Forza” cars, this list of mine should be getting smaller with every title. Not getting bigger.
While I won’t deny the possibility that the OP is correct, there are a lot of possibilities that I feel are more plausible.
One is: “We need to canibalize the autoshow because we couldn’t populate the playlist in year 1 (either due to delays in the car production pipeline or licensing pipeline)”
And another that I find more likely considering the state the game launched in: “we’re having more trouble than we expected converting cars over to FH5, so we’ll just reduce the autoshow and put them on the playlist to cover it up.”
I will say though, licencing issues contributed to at least some of the absences in the autoshow. We have pretty hard proof of that considering 2 Lancias were prominently featured in the pre-release materials only to not make it into the game.
At least they added some of the cars I actually asked for. Jaguar XJR-15 and MG SV. They also added Alfa 155 to FH4 but no Alfa Group and we had the pandemic. It was end of game too so in the end it was a fleeting thing.
It does feel like I’m just playing another pokemon game collecting all the cars I lost on the way to Mexico, though. Game calls me a superstar from the last game, but acts like I couldn’t have just flown in one of my many F40C’s or Toyota Baja trucks? Okay, mate.
The only car that matters and that needs to come back is this one. Tell me I’m wrong and that a trial with the Quart Regalia Type-D wouldn’t be hilarious lol.
Out of all the theories, the “not enough cars to add” seems the most plausible given the pandemic. They certainly had enough new content to cover any paid DLC (minus the 911 Sport Classic), but they definitely didn’t have enough for the base game (only around 22 new vehicles were added), and they most certainly didn’t have enough to justify the Festival Playlist.
If that’s the case, then I wish Playground were a little upfront about it, given how the pandemic was hard for everybody, but at the same time, I really don’t understand why they didn’t just bring back cars from Horizon 1, 2, and 3 as well as migrate road cars from Motorsport 4, 5, 6, and 7.
Also, while I agree the absence of Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Fiat, and Abarth was genuine at launch, there’s literally no reason for their absence now. GRID Legends had Lancia and Alfa Romeo at their launch (three months after Horizon 5), Gran Turismo 7 had all four at launch (four months after Horizon 5), and Need for Speed Unbound will have Alfa Romeo at launch (an entire year after Horizon 5). If there were problems at the Italian licensing offices at FCA during the Stellantis merger, there most certainly isn’t an issue now.
Me too. It’s hands down my favorite car in FH4/5. Great acceleration, decent top speed, great handling and thick!!! Also great on snow, road, wet, offroad. Could practically do everything with the same tune.
In this thread: Lots of people who don’t know what licensing is, or how it works.
Cars get re-used because it’s easy. New cars don’t always get added (or hell, some older cars get taken away) because licensing is a thing that they have ZERO control over. Just look at the lack of Fiats, etc.
We know some agreement was reached, because the trademarks appear in the games credits, but those vehicles haven’t arrived yet, most likely, because the HOW of their appearance is still being worked on, or the work to remake those vehicles isn’t done yet. Either way, it’s all down to licensing, and that’s something PGG have no say in.
Okay. But something like TS020 is not licensing. It has no sponsors on it even. Two are in museums. Pandemic and travel/difficulty adding extra models is a more reasonable explanation as to why we have almost all the other GT1 homologation specials.
Of course licensing affects adding new companies and retaining existing (Alfa) but look at the FTO - A thumbnail is in the gamefiles. Did Mitsubishi suddenly say no or up the price? Why is the Legacy a “new” prize and not say that?
Cars I paid for in FH4 are being reused as new content. Sentra. That’s where it gets guys
Yes. It has been in FM from the beginning and is in Toyota’s Japanese and German museums. The only argument I read before is that is would have to be X class, but the road car has a lower spoiler, catalytic coverter and street tires so would surely be an S2 and fit very well into that class.
That’s a cool new car from existing stock. So the pandemic is a more acceptable reason to me than licensing for it not to be added yet.
…of course the reason (partly at least) is so that everyone can have the few cars they really really want, which are widely different for all of us. I do like that there is such a variety 
Okay, mate.
guys