Forza Horizon 5 devs grilled for “recycling” content after discovery in story

Connor Knudsen

Forza Horizon 5 has made big headway for the franchise in 2021, but fans have called out devs for recycling content from previous games in what looks to be a glaring misstep.

By in large, Forza Horizon 5 is considered to be one of the best games in all of 2021, taking the franchise to the next level with incredible weather conditions and amazing customization options.

Despite FH5 being quite impressive, it’s often difficult for games like Forza to differentiate themselves from their previous iterations. When there’s not enough change, fans can easily start to ask questions about the originality of the content.

And, thanks to a recent player discovery in the game, devs are getting absolutely grilled by the community for reusing content from the franchise’s previous release, Forza Horizon 4. The evidence is hard to ignore.

Forza Horizon 5 cars speeding along a road
FH5 is stunning in many ways, but fans are concerned with how different from FH4 it really is.

Forza Horizon 5 devs grilled over “recycled” content

In a post to the Forza subreddit on December 5, one player pointed out a racing suit (Horizon Race Suit) that clearly bears the logo from the previous Horizon title.

Fans are not happy in the post’s 148+ comments, sharing even more examples of content recycling that they’ve found in the Xbox racer.

“Not a bug, they just forgot lol” is an apt top comment on the thread, making the claim that the game doesn’t have a technical issue and the suit wasn’t intentionally left in the game from Horizon 4.

Fans have been quick to point out other things that they believe to be copied over from previous games, drawing comparisons to EA, 2K Games, and others that have also been in hot water over the same issue in years past.

“Man if you can’t cry you have to laugh. Is Horizon going to become an annual game like COD, FIFA and others, where they just put in minimal effort and call it a new sequel every year?”

With more comments noting other issues of the same kind like mistakes with UK license plates, devs are under pressure to make sure their games are always packed with new content, rather than just putting more icing over the same cake.

About The Author

Connor is a former writer at Dexerto based in Oklahoma City who covered Overwatch, New World and more. A lifetime gamer, he has been covering gaming and esports since 2018, and has competed since 2010. Yet, despite all of that, he still can't aim.