Why Did Toyota Disappear From Racing Games? 

To address the elephant in the room: This video was being made before both my friend Korr's as well as BlackPanthaa's video on this subject went up. I'll address both videos in this comment: Korr's video was pretty good but the video went over a very narrow scope of the situation (It's mainly about NFS Unbound and not the 5-year-long issue with non-Japanese racing games), used the licensing cost issue as a more definitive statement than it actually is, and stated that "Toyota has come back to every other racing game" which couldn't be further from the truth. Toyota has only come back to Forza, which is an exception. There's just so little racing games to go around right now that it looks like there non-Japanese racing games rule has changed just because they're in Forza, which is... the main open world racing game at the moment. Theo's video was a little all over the place, and I get a lot of his points - but he was mainly applying licensing rules that go for every car manufactuer to Toyota while ignoring the very specific issues that have plagued this Toyota issue for the past five years. I also figured no one else wanted to over the history of the issue with the Kotaku article, and those are the reasons why I decided to finish this video and upload it.

Toyota has basically become what Ferrari was back in 2003-2012 having been absent in Need for Speed and other street racing games.

Glad you explained it & debunked the street racing theory. If Toyota is against street racing, they wouldn't be in Initial D Arcade Stage Zero, Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 6RR, or Fast & Furious Crossroads.

clearly a skill issue from Toyota, smh my head

I don’t understand why everyone overlooks the Mr2s man 😢

With The Crew Motorfest having Supras (both the A80 and A90), this pretty much leaves NFS as the odd one out. I feel that at this point, NFS could've gotten Toyota license but EA chose not to since sales of the games weren't affected significantly and they could cut down development cost.

At the same year Toyota disappeared from Need For Speed which is 2017, I saw a mobile racing game titled "The Street King" that had Toyota models (They have the models but the names of the models are entirely fictional). The models there were the 1994 Supra A80, 2020 GR Supra, 1983 Sprinter Trueno, 1983 Corolla Levin, and the 2013 GT86. Fictional names: 1994 Supra A80 - Tourer 2020 GR Supra - Tourer 1983 Sprinter Trueno - OVR-8 1983 Corolla Levin - OVR-6 2013 GT86 - t8

Right now, Audis are not even in the latest Need For Speed game, which is very unfortunate…

I've seen a lot of people throw around the idea that Polyphony has some exclusivity deal with Toyota. I highly doubt that for two reasons: 1) Toyota probably would've come out and said it long ago if that were the case 2) Toyota cars exist in Forza and Project CARS

I can't think any other content creator adressing this whole situation better than you do and people should know more about it. It really bugs the shit out of me seeing Ferrari the most restrictive of the bunch in so many other racing games. Open World, Closed Track, Mobile.. whatever. While Toyota is being completely stupid through for all these years since they stayed absent from racing games except Gran Turismo. The thing about favoritism and street racing on japanese releases completely falls flat when they came back to Forza Horizon. I'll be real. The Supra would be absolutely nothing if they didn't were invested on the motorsport scene and pop culture. I hope they change this intolerant mentality about racing games don't give profit and let people at least enjoy these cars in videogames. it certainly does a hell of a difference for both markets.

i think with forza, the forza devs couldn't strike a deal with toyota for fm7 and fh4. however, i think the relationship has been restored as new to forza toyotas e.g the last celica was added post launch and new supra and there are some crazy customisation parts for toyotas. however some bias is still given to Japanese game devs e.g. the Toyota gr yaris hasn't come to forza and its been like 2 years since it came out while it was a launch car for gt7

There's leaked TC:M footage with the Supra, so now NFS is truly the only AAA racing game franchise without Toyota. RIP

Mobile games rack up money FH5 can't even dream of. So it's well withing the realm of possibility they're able to pay enormous licensing fee for Toyota cars.

I think the issue lies with EA, as they're not really the type of company you would like to be associated with. That explains why Toyota and Lexus are absent from NFS, and other brands could do the same. Audi already left the franchise, so it can just go on from there. But until the story comes out (Something I'm VERY doubtful will even happen), we'll never know

I just want a chaser in the game 😢

Well, Gran Turismo has that problem, too, with only the LFA and the ISF disappeared from Gran Turismo.

Reminds me of Honda didn't want their cars in some 2000s NFS games. Hope I'm not overthinking...

An interesting topic for you to address on your channel would be the issue of damage in racing games. Why nowadays we don't have so much damage in games?

Yo nice video

maybe there's some behind the scene feud with toyota and nfs? like lol

A Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 HYBRID is featured in EA Sports WRC, so there is no evidence of Toyota not wanting to work with Electronic Arts anymore. I think that the real reason why Toyota wasn't added to NFS Unbound is that Electronic Arts and Criterion Games wanted to sideline certain Toyota cars like a Toyota Supra due to how overrated certain Toyota cars were.

maybe because toyota car licensing is costlier than other and they probably don’t need more ads for their “outdated” cars and want to forcus on the family style cars and don’t want ppl to think that toyota make other types of cars apart from utilities and family styles of cars to squeeze as much money from the normal consumers as possible that what im thinking but i don’t think it the case but maybe

the crew motorfest (3) will have the toyota supra in the game so maybe its returning to the crew as well????

ACC also has no Supra GT4

Sorry but what is the name of that game in 1:07

Crew 2 / need for speed

Very epic video (i didn't watch it yet)

Let's be honest: Aside from the Celicas, Supras, MR's and Corollas from the 80s and 90s, what other sports cars does Toyota have? The BRZ clone? The BMW with a Toyota badge on it?

Honestly, i dont think its the situation but given we dont really know. I wouldnt be surprised if illegal street racing can have a factor, if it does its most likely a small one. But i wouldnt be surprised if there is a tiny bit of sense in that

Cuz they're busy making out with Kazunori and Gran Turismo, having the most OP cars every Manufacturers season. Please someone put an end on this

I imagine Toyota probably charges western developers large fees for licensing and then charge Japanese developers at a discount. As a result, it comes down to which western developers want to throw down all the money for one manufacturer.

Forza is not street racing game? really?

"toyota being lenient with mobile games" then NFS is also left out in that place as well, its been 7 years since NFS no limits is out and we never got another toyota after the AE86

If nfs is not an option why tf is forza allowed to have them while there you can even destroy traffic cars and have an 1000hp car

I don't understand that if Toyota doesn't want to be in NFS, why force them? Are other car manufacturers dead? Are they bad? Audi, BMW, Porsche, Lamborghini, Nissan, Dodge etc are better in terms of sports cars. The only good Toyota sports car was the MR2 and Chaser. Thats it. Supra and AE86 don't keep a special factor and none of their cars feel special like in a CORVETTE.

I think another reason why is that the new Mk.5 Supra was ridiculed for being another BMW Z4. So Toyota pulled their license out of non-Japan based game publishers/devs because in fears that no one would be interested in their new models. Toyota were the ones with cold feet in this situation.

Never cared if Toyota was in a game or not, trash company with trash vehicles

I can’t think of a single Toyota id want to drive besides a Supra in a game. I don’t care