No Toyota in Forza 7 or Need for Speed: Payback

This is insane, how the hell did this happen. Anyone know what is up with this? I can't imagine a racing game without these Iconic cars.

https://ar12gaming.com/articles/no-toyota-nfs-payback

http://www.thedrive.com/sheetmetal/13256/forza-motorsport-wont-include-any-toyota-road-cars

Apparently Toyota doesn't want to be in any racing games this year. It happens from time to time I guess. Anyone notice that there weren't any Volkswagens in Forza Horizon 3? I honestly didn't notice that until looking for other sources on this.

I can't believe they are already at FM7. I don't have XONE so I just have the 360 games but already at FM4 I felt that the series needed a brake. And having no Supra or Celica or MR2 or any other iconic Toyota is certainly not making me more interested.

Nice

More than you can afford pal, Toyota.

@dagas: I think the VW thing was less about not wanting to be associated with racing, and more to do with the diesel emissions scandal in the US.

I'm wondering if there will be a car pack for Toyota in the same way we had hem for Porsche in the past. Toyota may have seen they could make more money that way, or that skipping a year or two in games would give them better bargaining.

The licensing stuff on vehicles seems to require jumping through weird hoops sometimes. Porsche has been notoriously difficult on it over the years, as they seem to want to be "highlighted" before they'll allow licensing (see: Forza's Porsche expansions, NFS: Porsche Unleashed, etc.). I'd be interested to hear the inside baseball on that stuff, especially here, because Toyota seems like an odd manufacturer to put their foot down. If they're trying to emulate the Porsche strategy, I think they might learn the hard way that the brand isn't as beloved in the racing world as they might think. I mean, I don't fire up Forza to drive a Celica.

I was hoping to drive a GT86 but I guess I'll just use something else.

A BRZ might suit your needs.

The proud performance heritage of Toyota can only be challenged a by a few other storied manufacturers. Manufacturers like Isuzu and Suzuki. Maybe Saturn. Possibly Oldsmobile. And Mercury probably.

@notnert427: I may be wrong, but I thought the reason it was so difficult to get Porsche in non-EA games was due to the exclusive licensing deal between Porsche and EA, which expired recently (thus, Forza 7 has Porsches in the base game). Previously, EA would sell you a "sub-license" to have Porsches in your game. Turn 10 has said that they negotiated with EA to get Porsches in base Forza games, but the deals never came together until after the base games were released. Here is an interesting (used subjectively) article from 2011 about Porsche and video games from Jalopnik.

OT, while I like Toyotas, they are one brand I would probably not miss that much in a racing game.

Thanks for the link and info, and I do find the business stuff behind games interesting. I kind of get it for Porsche, because at least Porsches are pretty rad and have a long and storied racing history. Toyota has had some racing success, but outside of some Supra JGTC success and some successful WRC cars, its road cars aren't really widely known for their racing prowess. I'd think this is even more true for people in their 20s, as Toyota's motorsport legends like the GT-One were before their time, and even the Supra is probably "that Fast and the Furious car" if known at all. The FT-86 was Toyota's first attempt at a "sports car" in a while (I don't count Lexus LFAs and whatnot), and even the FT-86 is arguably underpowered and hasn't exactly built cult status yet or anything.

I'm old enough to remember and appreciate the Supra's heyday, and still, when I think of Toyota now, I think of Camrys and Tacomas. They make quality vehicles for sure, but this move has me wondering if they have a skewed idea of how the brand is viewed (especially over here in the states). From a Forza perspective, I can't say I'll really miss the Toyota road cars, especially if their full-on racers like the GT-One, F1, Prototypes end up in there anyway. If anything, this just highlights the fact that Toyota doesn't really make awesome road cars anymore. It's funnier because the Subaru BRZ is in Forza 7 to fill what little void the FT86 leaves, because they're virtually identical cars. This seems like a dumb move by Toyota.

does this means no Lexus either ?

It appears so.

That's a major bummer. I love the LFA, but these games always do a great job at letting me build a huge stable so I'm sure I'll be fine without it, still not great.

Well, on the plus side...

I'm much more interested in virtually driving Lamborghinis, Ferraris, and Porsches than Lexuses (Lexi?) and Toyotas.

@notnert427: lol yeah I think I'll be juuuuuuuust fine. That amount of Porsche is great too - still need to pick up that DLC for FH3 but between Lamborghini, Ferrari, Porsche, and I weirdly really enjoy BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi in these games quite a bit - but not too concerned about it, still look forward to seeing how it looks and plays. Did they confirm this is play anywhere as well?

Can't wait to drive 20 different types of 911's ....... and 29 versions of the Volkswagen beetle :D

Heard about this with FM7 some time ago and now the latest NFS. Very weird. Something is definitely afoot. This is not like Porsche or anything. Toyota has been in games for decades without issue as far as I know.

But, I submit what I believe to be a key piece of evidence: Toyota to debut new performance division next month in Japan

This seems its potentially tied to the new Supra. My best guess is that Toyota wants to have all of its performance oriented cars sort of organized or labelled under this new division. This I believe could cause Toyota to tell all of these licensing deals "Hold up. Don't announce or show anything with our cars. In September we'll announce the name of this new division and you can publish all the press news etc with the new logo/brand alongside the new Supra being in your game" or something.

It's a bit silly but marketing is silly and dumb. Think of how GT/Forza etc use the manufacturer logos for car selection menus. Its as simple and dumb as they don't want the games using the old Toyota logo anymore if the new division has its own.. Like Scion did or something.

That's my best guess because other than that, it makes absolutely no sense, unless Toyota signed some kind of exclusivity deal for Gran Turismo Sport but I can't remember if any street cars are in that either.

@facelessvixen: the lack of VW in horizon 3 was very prominent to me. i guess its all about which cars you like