Trivia / Need for Speed Payback

• Creator Backlash: When EA returned to Steam in 2020, they brought all the Ghost Games-developed NFS entries except this one, although it was added later.
• The Danza: Jessica "Jess" Miller is voiced by (and modeled after) Jessica Madsen.
• Dummied Out: Six cars — the BMW M3 E30 Evolution, the Mazda RX-7 FD Spirit R, the Nissan Skyline 2000GT-R, the Plymouth Barracuda, the Volvo 242 and the Volvo Amazon P130 — were originally announced for the game, but aren't available to the player at launch. Ghost confirmed they withheld them from the full game due to bugs, and are releasing them once said bugs are sorted out as "Abandoned Cars", where players have a limited time to find them lying around in Fortune Valley and drive them back to the garage at Airfield 73 while being chased by the cops.
• Fake American: Tyler Morgan and Lina Navarro, who are likely American, are portrayed by British actors Jack Derges and Dominique Tipper, respectively.
• Follow the Leader:
  • Payback seems to be taking cues from The Crew, particularly with its varying vehicle configurations that align with different driving "disciplines" (Race, Off-road, Drifting, Running, and Drag), the idea of finding old wrecks to source parts from, the themes of betrayal and vengeance, and general "gritty", cinematic aesthetic (in the vein of movies like Fast Five).
  • The game featuring offroad racing and the concept of "abandoned" cars was seen as copying similiar features from Forza Horizon. Note that while some fans saw it as obvious copying, they were still mostly well-received, though.

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