Just want to say thank you to turn10/playground games. I have enjoyed thre forza franchise from the beginning both motorsport and horizon but with the last two entries I have hit a problem that they (t10/pg) have taken away what is the most important aspect of the game for me, the ability to collect cars, I understand they need to keep the player base interested and the seasonal challenges keep people coming back, but I don’t always have the time to complete the weekly stuff so I miss out on cars constantly, I have no problem with the cars being available that way but at least put them in the auto show after the event is finished so that I can at least complete the collection side of the game. As it stands i will no longer be buying any of the forza titles or add ons any more! And that saddens me like I said I really enjoyed the games up until it became gated.
Sorry to see you go but I disagree about putting the cars in the Autoshow after the event is finished. The whole idea is to make people play the game. Plus you can knock out the weekly playlist in roughly 90 minutes. That spread over 7 days is about 13 minutes play per day. Not much of an imposition in my opinion.
Horizon’s live service feels like a part-time job though after a few months.
I’d much prefer it if Playground followed in Polyphony Digital’s footsteps and made the new cars available at any time, and simply provided new events to specifically try the new cars out.
Yeah, people wouldn’t be inclined to return EVERY week, but honestly how many of us have actually played the same game every week for three years prior to the live service model taking off in popularity? And this all after more or less 100 percenting the base game too, mind you.
I feel like a good chunk of why I love older racing games (besides the superior quality) is none of them held me captive every week. I’d finish them within two months, not feel timegated out of content, and ultimately walked away with better memories as a result.
I’m fine with some sort of exclusivity period for new cars, but there’s no reason whatsoever that they shouldn’t be added to the Autoshow a few months down the road. You can play and get them for free now, or wait and buy them later. That’s a fair deal.
Seems like a car collector would appreciate the playlist format as a way to earn the new cars. Doesn’t take but 15 or 20 minutes to earn 20 points for the new car of the week.
Certainly more interesting than just logging on occasionally to grab a car from the autoshow and then not playing again for who knows how long.
This game is based upon a festival playlist…and the reward cars, exclusive ones at least, are always part of that playlist. I finish the whole playlist including the trial and hw and rally adventure in less than 2 hours or so. You literally can now get 20 points doing less than 25 minutes of game play, so for even someone on a cramped schedule how much is that really? Do you play the game 5 to 10 minutes a week and then not play till next week? Did you just buy the game to collect cars? If so it’s not for you. What is the point of owning cars if you don’t drive them, and if you can’t afford 20 minutes or so every seven days this game is not for you. You need a game without the playlist like a NFS or something like that.
Car collector here. No, I don’t like this format. It’s gotten tedious. It’s a format that originated back in 2019. Anything in a video game that is old enough to be potty trained and be enrolled in public school needs a shake-up at some point.
And the game being so dependent on the Festival Playlist is probably Horizon’s weakest selling point these days. I’d rather have a more traditional career mode than the Festival Playlist anyday. As I mentioned shadow, it’s an old and tedious format. Doing the same thing over and over again week in, and week out gets boring fast. Doesn’t it matter if takes 2 minutes, or two hours. It’s time for a refresh.
I guess your enjoyment of the playlist is dependent on what aspects of the game you like
For example, I’m really into the tuning aspect and the playlist gives me an outlet for my tunes and a reason for players to download them.
I also really enjoy the Trial. I have my complaints about the awful AI but it’s fun to see if my tunes can get me a 1st place finish.
Locking cars is fine when there’s an auction house, but in FM23 it’s literally impossible to get them and STILL it’s not enticing enough for people to play the game
I love the cars and the racing, but I need a break. Like a one month break. And then a month long break after that. And I don’t want to be punished for it by missing out on new content that will vanish within a week and take three to six months to return.
I love the idea of the playlist. Having something new every week that’s pre-made and I can just hop in and enjoy, plus the subtle push to get me out of my comfort zone really do add a lot to my enjoyment of the game.
Unfortunately, the playlist also came with them axing the single player and convoy only gameplay almost to the root. It was like they were worried that the playlist wouldn’t work out, and so they gutted the game to force engagement so they could point to those engagement numbers in meetings and get that big raise for their “great” idea. Doesn’t matter how much I love the idea of the playlist, doing that is not ok. It’s like I got a great lunch and all it cost was all of my favourite restaurants burning to the ground.
I think keeping exclusives timed for a period is acceptable. Those cars don’t get added to the game for free, and they either need to sell them or make money through tertiary means by keeping engagement up to justify the cost.
However, I do think at some point cars should come to the Autoshow, or a backstage pass or whatever. I don’t know how long of a time period that should be, all I know is that it can’t be right away. As much as people don’t like it, there has to be some level of FOMO or else engagement won’t stay up, undermining what keeps the cars free (in real life money) for us consumers.
I don’t understand why they haven’t brought back the Backstage Pass, this is a good in between. (i don’t mean the one where you could only vote pick between 2 cars; but rather the later version which allows you to purchase any exclusive car using the pass. Did people really not like this system?
I mean according to this there are currently 172 exclusive cars, and we’re only getting roughly 5 of these offered to us again as the 40/160pts option every playlist : KillerSpectre's Totally Original FH5 Rare Car List - Google Drive
Thankfully for me I have every current exclusive, but I would’ve hated to start this game now and pray that the exclusive cars I was after would either pop up in next month’s playlist or monitor the Auction house for hours for 1 to come up (and then be bought out by someone else lol).
Sorry to hear that you are leaving 
. Althou I gotta agree with the others, it doesnt take to long to get the car (I am a college student, a commuter and have a job and hadnt missed a car yet), I understand the fomo, but I do also gotta disagree about the autoshow statement.
Personally if it was my decision I would introduce a form of backstage pass. (Like mentioned above) That way the incentive is still there. If it was added to the autoshow in my opinion it would be far to easy to obtain. As you get credits for just about everything you do. Meaning that there would be no purpose for the playlist as anyone could easily access these rare cars.
can i have your stuff?
I find it odd people are defending fomo tactics to “make people play the game”. There are games I have sunk tons of hours into because I enjoy it, other games I always play at least a few times a month because I enjoy the experience. What I’m hearing is that Forza can’t retain players without time gated cars? Shouldn’t the game on its own be engaging enough to have people returning and if you’re leaning on fomo mechanics maybe you should take a step back and ask why.
FOMO is self imposed. They make it as easy as possible to earn new cars. You can unlock the new car of the week in 20 minutes, and you have a week to do it.
Can’t play that week, get it from the auction house or maybe use one of the other 800 cars in the game.
Regardless, missing a car here and there shouldn’t prevent you from enjoying the game. If it does than that’s on you.
Some people are completionists, what can I say. Besides, what if they missed out on a favorite car of theirs’s being added if they skipped a week? What if they missed out on the latest meta car that throws online gameplay into turmoil unless you have it? Auction house doesn’t always have everything immediately on hand. It goes much deeper than what you’re making it out to be, and I’m sure, even from your perspective, you can understand that just because you enjoy the current system, doesn’t mean it’s bulletproof. Nor does it hide the fact that live services can be as sleazy as they are innovative.
It can’t retain as many players without FOMO tactics.
You’re right, the #1 priority is and should always be to make the game engaging even without FOMO, and my biggest gripe with the franchise of late is that it’s lost some of that.
However, the theory of continually adding new cars to the game is a good one. It can be ignored, and if you can’t find a car that you enjoy in the base game then I’d argue that you just don’t like cars. However, adding cars has a cost. Licensing, sourcing, research, labour… It’s a lot of work, and all of it costs money.
PGG isn’t a charity. In order to justify that cost, it needs some form of return. If it just continually added cars to the auto show at no cost to the consumer… Where is the return? That’s not a sustainable business model.
They can sell the cars as DLCs, and have been in some cases, but keeping up engagement and making money through tertiary means (like YouTube traffic, Games Pass subscriptions, etc) seems like a win/win to me. They get their return, we get free cars.
Some live service games can be sleazy, but I’d argue FH5 isn’t one of them. You can finish the whole playlist in a couple of hours(did it for the Pro Stock Camaro).
It’s one of the tamest live service games I’ve ever played.
It’s not trying to monopolize your time like many do.
If a player can’t give and incredibly minimal amount of engagement in FH5 for a new car they want, I’d say they probably don’t care that much about it.