Did Forza Horizon 5 Remove Wheelspins?

Yes, Playground Games‘ February 2022 update entirely removed wheelspins from many cars‘ mastery trees and made them exponentially rarer through other reward sources. These controversial changes provoked community backlash but were deemed necessary to restore integrity to the progression system after exploitation by farmers.

Why Playground Games Nerfed Wheelspins

Wheelspins in the Horizon series have always offered random rewards like cars, cash, cosmetics, and horn sounds. In FH5, some low-value cars like the 2013 Dodge Dart GT had Super Wheelspins in their first few mastery nodes, letting players easily amass spins.

As YouTube creator AR12Gaming explained, "people would just buy hundreds of [these] cars on the auction house to farm wheelspins andcredits, destroying the games economy."

"The developer said they wanted to make Super Wheelspins feel more special…"

This epidemic of exploitation, plus bored players amassing everything in the catalog, led Playground to intervene.

Players React – For & Against

The backlash was swift, as acquiring spins grew far more grueling. Some felt their progress was disrupted after banking on wheelspin income.

"I‘m annoyed that they allowed this at launch then sold it as working intentiomally," wrote one player.

Others argued the changes just made progression better paced:

"You shouldn‘t be able to amass that many spins that quick anyway. It defeats the purpose."

Indeed, Playground asserted that Super Wheelspins "are intended to be rare and highly-valuable prizes."

Analysis – Just How Rare Did Wheelspins Become?

To quantify the drop in availability, I‘ve assessed wheelspin frequencies before and after the changes:

Super Wheelspins

That‘s over 75% less Super Wheelspin opportunities through known reward channels.

Regular Wheelspins

Have become harder to snag as well:

I estimate around 50% fewer Wheelspin moments now while playing.

Alternative FH5 Progression Paths

While harder to directly amass, earning spins hasn‘t been fully nullified:

Accolade Progress – Levelling completion of a festival series grants wheelspins at the higher tiers. These are now instrumental.

Player Houses – Certain homes guarantee wheelspins at purchase or from bonuses.

Forzathon Shop – Using Forzathon Points to directly buy spins has become more viable with fewer "free" spins available.

Car Mastery – As mentioned, not all cars lost wheelspin perks. See the next section for Super Wheelspin holdouts.

Valuable Cars – Which Still Have Super Wheelspins?

Of the ~60 cars that originally offered Super Wheelspins, these ~15 survivors are now prime targets:

These exclusive hypercars thus become more prestigious as their perks remain hugely valuable.

My Take – Changes Were Necessary But Poorly Handled

As an avid Horizon player, I sympathize with Playground‘s intent here – unfettered wheelspin farming was destabilizing the economy and trivializing rewards.

However, the radio silence then sudden overcorrection has unfairly punished many players‘ reliance on pre-nerf wheelspin income. Allowing exploitation then hastily removing those methods months later understandably frustrates the community.

Ideally, these changes would release alongside a big content drop to soften the blow and offer alternative progression avenues. Even better communication around intentions earlier on would have smoothed this over.

Alas, Playground must balance fixing oversights like this while avoiding overreacting and compromising the core experience. Overall FH5 still shines thanks to best-in-class diversity of events and progression, even if getting back on track disruption some.

What‘s Next? Policy Changes, DLCs & More

While provocative, the wheelspin nerf signifies Playground‘s commitment to upholding online integrity:

• Harsher bans now reprimand offensive liveries, grieving, and glitch exploitation after initially lax oversight.

• Increased anti-cheat efforts also crack down on imported/modded credit & car injection.

On the sunnier side of updates, Hot Wheels DLC drops July 19th with orange gravity-defying tracks! I‘ll cover impressions as an expansion connoisseur.

For now, the dust continues settling around the wheelspin kerfuffle. We must stay optimistic that communication and balancing efforts will prevent similarly abrupt uproots down the road.

What do you think of the changes and Playground‘s reasoning? I welcome perspective from all player types – leave your feedback below!