The problem was a legal one: the rights to use Porsche vehicles in video games were held by EA Sports, the rival to Forza’s creator, Turn 10. While the two companies had hammered out licensing agreements to feature Porsche vehicles in earlier Forza games, EA declined to do so for Forza 4.
If you wanted to drive a Porsche onscreen, that restricted you to EA’s Need for Speed franchise games, which rely more on plot and less on realistic vehicle physics and the accurate recreation of racetracks.
Until now, that is: Porsche has announced that some 30 production and racing Porsche models will be available for download via an expansion pack for the Forza 4 game. The cost will be 1,600 Microsoft points (roughly $19.99) and the list includes an impressively diverse selection of cars, ranging from a 1955 550A Spyder through a 2012 911 GT2 RS.
It’s still not clear where EA Sports fits into all of this, but the fact that the announcement came directly from Porsche is significant. Porsche’s vice president of marketing for North America, Andre Oosthuizen, called the release “an excellent opportunity for Porsche to offer a virtual experience with our cars in a very fitting environment.”
Oosthuizen was referring to the world’s race tracks represented in Forza 4, a point also touched on by racer Patrick Long. Long called the game, “ an excellent way to learn the same tracks that we race in the American Le Mans Series and around the world.
Here’s the complete list of Porsche models in the Expansion pack:
Production 2012 911 GT2 RS
Production 2012 Cayenne Turbo
Production 2012 Cayman R
Racecar 2011 #45 Flying Lizard Motorsports 911 GT3-RSR (997)
Racecar 2011 #23 Alex Job Racing 911 GT3 Cup (997)
Racecar 2011 #17 Team Falken 911 GT3-RSR (997)
Racecar 2011 #54 Black Swan Racing 911 GT3 Cup (997)
Racecar 2008 #2 Gruppe Orange Racing 911 GT3 Cup (997)
Racecar 2008 #16 Dyson Racing RS Spyder Evo
Racecar 2007 #80 Flying Lizard 911 GT3-RSR (997)
Racecar 2008 #7 Penske Racing RS Spyder Evo
Production 2010 911 Sport Classic
Production 2010 Boxster S
Production 2010 Panamera Turbo
Production 2007 911 GT3 (997)
Production 2007 911 GT3 RS (997)
Production 2007 911 Turbo (997)
Racecar 2005 #31 Petersen-White Lightning 911 GT3-RSR (996)
Racecar 2005 #66 AXA Racing 911 GT3 Cup (996)
Production 2004 911 GT3 (996)
Production 2003 Carrera GT
Racecar 1998 #26 Porsche AG 911 GT1-98
Production 1995 911 GT2
Production 1989 944 Turbo
Production 1987 959
Racecar 1987 #17 Racing Porsche AG 962c
Production 1982 911 Turbo 3.3
Production 1973 911 Carrera RS
Production 1970 914/6
Production 1955 550A Spyder