Why You Won’t Be Seeing the Toyota Supra in Racing Games Like "Need for Speed"

• A Twitter user asked Toyota's U.K. account why none of the company's vehicles, such as the 2020 Supra, are in the new Need for Speed video game.
• In a response, since deleted, Toyota said its cars can be found in Gran Turismo Sport, a game that doesn't "promote illegal street racing."
• Toyota later tweeted a thread that explained the official reason: The company has no immediate plans to license its model range to any games besides Gran Turismo Sport.

Wondering why you can’t drive your favorite new sports car in your favorite racing game? Toyota was mulling that over this week, too, and in a very public forum: Twitter.

On Tuesday, a Twitter user asked the Japanese company’s U.K. account why there were no Toyotas in the upcoming Need for Speed Heat. GTPlanet captured the now deleted tweet, in which Toyota responded that the automaker won't include its vehicles in games that "promote illegal street racing."

However, as The Drive pointed out, not only were Toyota street cars absent from 2017's closed-circuits-only Forza Motorsport 7, but the 2020 Supra was recently spied on the set of Fast & Furious 9. (Call it a hunch, but we’re guessing Dominic Toretto and crew will not be using the car to demonstrate proper three-point-turn techniques.)

View this post on Instagram

The cat is out of the bag. 2020 Zupra on-set of Fast 9. Reports of four Zupras being used in production. #mkivdotcom #toyotasupra #thefastandthefurious #rememberthebuster #fastandfurious #toyota #supramkiv #Supranation #supralife #paulwalker #paulwalkerrip #suprasandskylines #2jz #jdmlife #supra.gang #suprahub #supraculture

A post shared by Fast and Furious Facts.com (@craiglieberman_42) on Aug 19, 2019 at 10:46am PDT

That’s when Need for Speed's official account jumped into the fray, calling Toyota "nerds." Ouch.

pfft nerds

— Need for Speed (@NeedforSpeed) August 20, 2019

The following day, Toyota had a change of heart—or PR messaging, at least—and tweeted a thread that begins: “About last night . . . ”

We love that you want to see our cars in all your favourite racing games, and honestly, we want the same thing. 1/5

— ToyotaUK (@ToyotaUK) August 21, 2019

Officially, Toyota Motor Corporation has no concrete plans to license its model range to any other games besides Gran Turismo Sport at the moment. 3/5

— ToyotaUK (@ToyotaUK) August 21, 2019

We'll be really excited to share our future plans with you as soon as we're able to. In the meantime, whether it's Gran Turismo Sport, Forza or Need for Speed, keep on racing. 5/5

— ToyotaUK (@ToyotaUK) August 21, 2019

In other words, because Toyota has an exclusive deal with Sony’s Gran Turismo Sport, you won't be seeing a Supra, a Tacoma, or even a Corolla in any other video games.

Now why didn't they just say that in the first place?

By: Car and Driver