Yesterday's announcement of Forza Horizon may have lead some players to believe that Forza Motorsport 4 has reached the end of the road. Not hardly. The game has been the recipient of monthly DLC ever since it launched last October, and is about to receive its biggest update yet: the Porsche Expansion Pack.

Forza Motorsport 4 is a brilliant game (read our review) -- maybe the best sim racer yet created. Its generous selection of cars and tracks, not to mention drop-dead gorgeous graphics, have helped it become the fastest selling title in the entire Forza series.

Still, it was tough not to notice that something important was missing from the retail version of the game -- namely, for the first time ever, there were no Porsches. Despite Turn 10 Studios' best efforts, they just weren't able to secure the Porsche license, which is held by Electronic Arts.

Clearly, the situation has changed. Speaking with Autoblog, Turn 10 Studios Creative Director Dan Greenawalt describes the challenges associated with obtaining the Porsche license.

"Well, many many years ago Porsche and EA Games signed a long-term deal regarding how Porsche was going to be licensed. That deal has been resigned many times over the years. Because of the nature of that deal, EA has the exclusive rights and the discretion to sub-license Porsche as they see fit."

"Porsche has been in the last three Forza Motorsports through a sub-licensing deal with EA. For Forza Motorsport 4 we were not able to find terms that were agreeable to all parties, but we stayed at the table. It took some time to value the brand in such a way that everyone agreed."

"Porsche, Ferrari and Lamborghini are kind of like the holy trinity of auto brands. They pull in a lot of people. They have prestige around the world. Finding that value and agreeing on that value is really what it came down to."

As the name makes clear, the Porsche Expansion Pack is not just another batch of DLC, but a significant addition to the game. For starters, the expansion includes 30 cars, including 23 returning favorites from Forza's past and 7 brand new additions. Only two of the cars have been announced so far, the 2010 Porsche 911 Sport Classic and the 2010 Porsche Boxster S. Check out the first screenshots of both below.

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Along with the new cars, the Porsche Expansion Pack adds twenty new Porsche-focused career events to Forza Motorsport 4, plus ten new achievements. Even the game's field of AI opponents and selection of level rewards will be freshly stocked with Porsches.

Just like Porsches themselves, all this new content won't come cheap. The Porsche Expansion Pack will retail for 1600 MS Points ($19.99) when it releases May 22nd, 2012 -- fully one third of Forza Motorsport 4's retail price. Then again, you get what you pay for, and in this case, well... you're paying for Porsches.

Are you looking forward to the Porsche Expansion Pack for Forza Motorsport 4? Would you like to see further expansions centered around another manufacturer? Let us know in the comments below.

The Forza Motorsport 4 Porsche Expansion Pack releases May 22, 2012, on Xbox Live.

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Source: Autoblog, Forza Motorsport 4