Licenses

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2005McLarenF1

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Can anyone explain how licenses work? I used to think it was an agreement with like an overlord company like GM or Ford, but thats apparantly not the case, considering PD has Chevy and cant get Pontiac. So is it they make deals with each sub company like Mercury or Plymouth, or do they have to get licenses to individual cars?
 
its more like a drivers licence... certial licence let you race in certian races...... D'oh!

oh, those licences! :p
 
It depends. Each license deal is going to be different, and depend on what particular cars are already licensed, and what the companiues in question are willing to pay.

There is no such thing as a "standard contract". Each and every one is negotiated in great detail.
 
You can be forced to get a different licence for each individual car, let alone the marque, it's all worked out in negotiations, like Neon said there is no standard contract, it's all decided between you and the company. Somtimes it's impossible to get a licence or almost impossible, take Ferrari for example, EA own the exclusive rights to Ferrari, so anyone who want's Ferrari in the game must make a deal with EA. As for Pontiac, it's in GT4. The Pontian GPX has already been shown in demo's as a playable car.
 
Like Neon said, contracts vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. There's some things that are the same in each contract, I'm sure; for example the likeness, designs, logos, devices, and names still belong to the respective makers of the autombile. But how and where the car is used is another matter left open to agreement between Polyphony and Auto Maker X. There seems to be three kinds of these contracts with game-makers:

1. Exclusive.
The game-maker has an exclusive right with an automobile maker, thus it can't go anywhere else. Electronic Arts managed to get exclusive deals (because they have a lot of money!) with makers like Porsche, Lamborghini, McLaren, Ferrari, et al. Note the formula cars bearing names like F090/S and F686/M, too.

2. Semi-exclusive.
BMW's motorsport-tuned "M-cars", and the infamous Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR ring a bell. BMW and Mercedes still offered some of it's cars to the GT series, even though not every example of the respective marque has been represented. But also think of the money EA has to pay out for semi-exclusive rights to things like the NFL, NBA, MBL, NHL, FIA...and sells tons of these games to the masses as well.

3. Non-exclusive (a.k.a. Sure, Why Not?)
Many others fall into this category; the Skyline GT-R, Corvette, Supra and a wealth of others get the nod for any video game that pays the manufacturer's asking price. Thus, there are plenty of cars that appear in the GT series as well as TOCA, WRC, Colin McRae, Need for Speed, Test Drive...the list goes on for a while.

There's one more category: No licensing issues.
Yeah, you know who you are. This is not necessarily a bad thing, either. The worlds of Midnight Club and Grand Theft Auto aren't 100% real, so do the makers really need to waste money on licensing?
 
Originally posted by pupik
Like Neon said, contracts vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. There's some things that are the same in each contract, I'm sure; for example the likeness, designs, logos, devices, and names still belong to the respective makers of the autombile. But how and where the car is used is another matter left open to agreement between Polyphony and Auto Maker X. There seems to be three kinds of these contracts with game-makers:

1. Exclusive.
The game-maker has an exclusive right with an automobile maker, thus it can't go anywhere else. Electronic Arts managed to get exclusive deals (because they have a lot of money!) with makers like Porsche, Lamborghini, McLaren, Ferrari, et al. Note the formula cars bearing names like F090/S and F686/M, too.

2. Semi-exclusive.
BMW's motorsport-tuned "M-cars", and the infamous Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR ring a bell. BMW and Mercedes still offered some of it's cars to the GT series, even though not every example of the respective marque has been represented. But also think of the money EA has to pay out for semi-exclusive rights to things like the NFL, NBA, MBL, NHL, FIA...and sells tons of these games to the masses as well.

3. Non-exclusive (a.k.a. Sure, Why Not?)
Many others fall into this category; the Skyline GT-R, Corvette, Supra and a wealth of others get the nod for any video game that pays the manufacturer's asking price. Thus, there are plenty of cars that appear in the GT series as well as TOCA, WRC, Colin McRae, Need for Speed, Test Drive...the list goes on for a while.

There's one more category: No licensing issues.
Yeah, you know who you are. This is not necessarily a bad thing, either. The worlds of Midnight Club and Grand Theft Auto aren't 100% real, so do the makers really need to waste money on licensing?
Click to expand...

Thanks.
 
Yeah, manufacturers have quite a say in the nature of the contract, I imagine.

Not all provide PD with the same amount of info, an dsome obviously value the game as a sales product more than others.
 
Apparentley TVR don't charge PD for puting their cars into a GT game, they charge everyone else but not PD, after GT1 was made (PD had to pay for the licence then) TVR's became more popular in many places, especially Japan where there are several dealerships now and they say it's all down to their appearence in GT1. As a thanks for the increased buisness TVR gave PD a contract that gave them the chance to put any TVR in a GT game without charge, I'm not sure if that was before or after GT2 though.
 
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