Have You Seen It? - Mercedes-McLaren SLR

[TrinalWarrior1]

I can’t understand. Why in the last two iterations of the Forza franchise there isn’t this awesome car?
I know it has been found in the game data of Forza Horizon 3 but it has been released neither as a DLC car nor as a Forzathon prize, and now in Motorsport 7 it’s simply vanished! Licensing issues? It has been a source of conflict between the English and the German car makers but a long time ago and it shouldn’t have appeared in the previous game too. Other than that I have no clue. Does somebody know something more about it?

[Dragnet]

@ManteoMax

FM7 FAQ: Car List and Types

Why are some previous Forza game cars left out of FM7?
From FH3:

@JONK1969

Ultimately, any car that appears in Forza is a car we at Turn 10 decided to include. For cars that appeared in a previous Forza title but do not in the current game, there are many reasons. I’ll summarize a few here:

Sometimes it’s a choice we made to make room for another car we felt was more important for the title. Game design balance might be a factor. Or disc space: there’s only so much room on the physical disc. Project budget or schedule impact another: porting and licensing cars from earlier titles in addition to building and licensing new cars all come with resource cost we have to prioritize.
Sometimes we decide that a car has been made redundant by a higher trim version or newer model that otherwise is too similar to an older model to justify both. Sometimes we are unable to license a particular car by a manufacturer, or any car by a manufacturer (or even multiple OEMs represented by the same agency) for one reason or another, even if it was in last year’s game. There are quite a few cars in the community top 100 list that fall under this category, but we’ll keep trying.

There’s a reason that no other racing game features so many manufacturers: it’s really hard! It takes a dedicated team of professional licensing and legal experts working year-round to maintain strong relationships with OEMs, race teams, and the agencies and lawyers who represent them, as well negotiating ever-changing contract terms, costs, and often changing personal contacts. The desire to have every car that has appeared in Forza to be included in every new Forza is understandable, but to expect that is just not realistic from a game design, licensing, or business perspective.

@JONK1969

Even when a manufacturer asks us to put their shiny new car in the game, it still has to be licensed, which isn’t free. It all piles up if you multiply that by dozens of car makers and multiple models for each. But that’s the price of doing business. There are benefits for us in that some of these manufacturers will amplify attention for our games or DLC on their website and social media.