Can someone explain video game licensing to me?

"PushToStart" (pushtostart)
07/03/2014 at 18:32 • Filed to: Video games

Alright, so here's my question: how come some games have cars and tracks that others don't?

For instance, Porsche. Somehow, Forza managed to temporarily get the Porsche license to make a DLC pack for Forza 4, however, now they don't have the license for Forza 5, or Forza Horizon/ Horizon 2. Porsche also isn't available in the Gran Turismo games, either. I understand that EA has the license, so they "own the rights" to put Porsche's cars in their games, so they put them in Real Racing. So that part makes sense to me (kind of) but here's the other part of the question... How can Forza, Gran Turismo, AND EA all have the rights to put, say, Ferrari in their games? If Porsche can only be in one title, how can Ferrari be in multiple?

Can someone explain how this whole thing works? How can one brand be exclusive to one game, but another brand be used by multiple games?

DISCUSSION (20)

T5Killer > PushToStart
07/03/2014 at 18:35

I have wondered that as well. Sadly every time someone from GT or Forza gets interviewed no one asks how this process works. I would love to know how and why cars get picked especially with the GT series where it seems completely at random.

Forgetful > PushToStart
07/03/2014 at 18:35

Ferrari decided not to license their products exclusively, as do most manufacturers.

The Porsche/EA deal seems to be the only one of its kind.

It's just up to the company if they want their licenses to be exclusive or not.

Sir_Stig: and toxic masculinity ruins the party again. > PushToStart
07/03/2014 at 18:36

I know you generally have to pay to use them, Project cars probably wont have lambos because the licence would eat most of the budget.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > PushToStart
07/03/2014 at 18:36

EA ponied up a lot of cash for exclusivity. Ferrari get similar proportions of money from all of the others so they all get the rights.

PushToStart > Forgetful
07/03/2014 at 18:41

Ok, so they (the manufacturer) get to choose whether they want to be exclusive or not?

I guess I'd have to really look at numbers, it just seems to me that it'd be more profitable for the car company to license to everyone, and that they could use the line "Well, if you want our cars in your game, you need to change the contract so that you don't own exclusive rights to our brand name." as leverage to get what they want when negotiating with game studios.

So I guess EA probably handed over a TON of cash to make the deal to Porsche worth it, or else I don't see why they would've gone for an "exclusive" deal.

promoted by the color red > PushToStart
07/03/2014 at 18:43

Money.

Battery Tender Unnecessary > PushToStart
07/03/2014 at 18:43

It means Turn 10 had to get EA's permission to get Porsche into Forza 4...which probably cost a lot of money and in turn, that's why the Porsche DLC was so expensive. They either didn't try for Forza 5, it's prohibitively expensive, or EA just didn't want to play ball this time around.

Vzwolf > PushToStart
07/03/2014 at 18:45

Need for Speed Porsche Unleashed was a fantastic game. I can't even be mad at EA for wasting their Porsche license now because of the many fond memories I have of the game. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to find a way to make that game work on my mac.

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > PushToStart
07/03/2014 at 18:47

I'll make it easy for you Lawyers+Money=Licensing

PushToStart > Vzwolf
07/03/2014 at 18:56

Loved that game too, and I tried to make it work on my Mac, and couldn't get it to... If you find out how, let me know haha

PushToStart > Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire
07/03/2014 at 18:57

Honestly, Lawyers+Money= a lot of things these days.

Just ask Bernie Eccelstone.

Grindintosecond > PushToStart
07/03/2014 at 19:07

There is other considerations. such as, hsa said developer represented the brands properly in the spirit of that brands history? Have they made other marques that outperform unequally in the same game? there's a laundry list of things. What's in it for them and will it generate future fans of the brand sort of thing.

Eazy-O > PushToStart
07/03/2014 at 19:09

Any holder (or group of them) of intellectual property can decide under which terms to license it.

Sometimes the decision is leveraged by the amount of money offered by various parties and factors such as exclusivity affect both the decision and the amount.

There's other odd stuff as well. For example, in Need For Speed III: Hot Pursuit, you could not drive Ferrari or Mercedes cars against police in Pursuit mode. The word is Fezza and Merc didn't want their reputation tarnished by being driven by crimenuls. :D

But I'm sure more funding would help that. EA wasn't all that big back then...

PushToStart > Eazy-O
07/03/2014 at 19:14

wow, didn't know about the Ferrari/ Mercedes pursuit thing, that's pretty crazy

Vzwolf > PushToStart
07/04/2014 at 08:19

It didn't work so of course I tried putting it on my old HP laptop. I tried the download from CNET and as soon as I hit accept, it installed all of this trovigo malware (no option for custom installation).

I think you need to just get the cd, I saw on Amazon the reviews but they were dated 2002-2003. It was fun to read those. I doubt then it would even work, that game was designed for windows 2000. I'll have to do some digging.

PushToStart > Vzwolf
07/04/2014 at 08:54

I'll try the CD again, maybe I can figure it out, although I seriously doubt it, haha

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > PushToStart
07/04/2014 at 10:55

It's really rather simple. EA are assholes. They are like a misbehaving toddler who won't share their toys.

Porsche's IP department doesn't understand IP and is like the toddler's parents who won't discipline them and allow such abhorrent behavior to happen. They have been blinded by greed and cannot see that allowing EA to act this way hurts them as well.

Porsche is one of the winningest automakers ever. Their cars should be in every single racing game out there. If they think that allowing EA to squander their IP with a bunch of mediocre games that do not showcase Porsche products as champions and do little to encourage younger generations of fans is good for their future, then they clearly are content to promote the current stereotype that a Porsche is just a car for fat, balding, middle-age men to have a mid-life crisis in.

Meanwhile Ferrari and BMW have their cars all over the place and are winning younger generations of fans because those kids get to drive their brand-new products digitally before they are even old enough to drive them for real. Some of those kids will grow up into good-paying careers and have the money to buy a very nice car. They might have bought a Porsche if they had been able to play with one, but instead they will buy a BMW, or if they've done very well for themselves a Ferrari, since they recall how much fun it was to drive one on their PS4/XB1.

GhostZ > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable)
07/04/2014 at 11:00

I think it's because EA goes up to porsche and says "Look at all the best-selling games we make! See? No one else is going to make games that sell better than ours, therefore, if you let us exclusively use your vehicles, then you will endear yourself with the best games!"

And what porsche doesn't seem to understand (at least with video games) is that best-selling and most-loved are two totally different concepts. They probably also don't know that other game companies don't require an exclusivity contract.

GhostZ > PushToStart
07/04/2014 at 11:14

Here's how IP breaks down legally:

"Intellectual Property" is anything of value (even if it's a nominally tiny value) that can be proven to be attributable to a person or company as its creators. The more paperwork you do to provide proof that yes, you did create it, the more secure it is. That's why if you just think of a cool name, then it's your intellectual property, but if someone else trademarks it, it's their property now because they have stronger evidence and proof that they came up with it first. So, keeping that in mind...

All manufacturers trademark the names, details, and shapes of their vehicles. Porsche and Ferrari are most known for this: images that use the shape of their cars, or the name of their cars as to be 'licensed merchandise'. What's a license? It's a contract that says that the person can use those shapes and names subject to a set of requirements.

Games like Gran Turismo has to go out and obtain licenses for every single car they include . Arguably, that's the most difficult part of putting a game like that together. Yet, some games (like Gran Theft Auto) can include cars that aren't quite the same shape and same name, and therefore do not have to get these licenses, despite appearing to be very similar.

This means that most of these companies need to be renewed for each use of the shape or name, for each video game. So in many ways, every time a new game comes out it's a big scramble to include those licenses.

So EA did something that most companies probably wouldn't be able to do (and they have enough resources that they might have been the only ones who could) and made an exclusive license for any video game they make. I could be wrong, but if I remember right, EA is allowed to use Porsche's vehicles in any video game without negotiating a new license. The simplicity and ease of this probably makes it a better deal for Porsche, who is able to make far more money off of it (and ONLY because EA games sell like crazy despite how bad they are) despite appearing in less games. Why does this work out financially? They assume that people who buy video games, do not buy porsches.

PushToStart > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable)
07/04/2014 at 11:32

Exactly, a manufacturer as big as Porsche should logically be in all the games.

I didn't know that it was EA that dictated who got to use Porsche's cars, I figured it would've been Porsche, so it seems that EA kind of has Porsche's nuts in a jar and isn't about to give them back... Seems backwards to me, but I'm glad I have an understanding on how all that works, I've been wondering for some time.