Spa-Francorchamps is Not in GT Sport (Yet) Because of Licensing Issues

queleuleu
They can keep Spa, I can find it in Forza 7 or any racing game. Bring back what made GT famous: Grand Valley, Midfield raceway, Special Stage route 11... They're all free!

Another point: in a time where motorsports tend to disappear from the mainstream media, Spa owners don't want to see its track in the most popular racing game on PS4?! At the end, GT can live without Spa IMO.
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- Grand Valley
- Spécial Route Stage 11 (original one)

Any day over Spa in this situation. Spa lost so much of its charm anyway since the safety massacre. I miss the bustop, the kittylitter and the narrow au rouge.



Create this version in a GT fantasy setting and I happily forget the real Spa completely :D
 
praiano63
Sakitto just seems like suzuka but it's far to be identic. Really far.
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Yeah, the layout is way off on Sakitto
The last sector though must be a lot of fun to go through at full throttle

Anyway, Spa causes problems - fine, it explains why it still isn't in the game
Why Pikes Peak isn't in the game despite PD owning exclusivity rights is beyond me. Why they're taking so long?
 
No big deal and I'm sure it will arrive eventually.

OJT6627
Stupid question, but can't PD just add Spa anyway, just under different name? Said Project CARS does have Suzuka under the name Sakitto, for example
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Lazybike
Didn't Project Cars get around the Suzuka license by calling the track something else, even though it had the same layout...I'm sure we can come up with some suitable names :)
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The Suzuka-inspired track in Project CARS only uses a vaguely similar layout.
 
Something along a similar vein of licensing; I wonder if Laguna Seca's inclusion has been affected by WeatherTech taking over as primary sponsor of the circuit and WeatherTech being the primary sponsor for IMSA's sportscar championship. I don't know if there has been any word on the status, but just something to think about
 
OJT6627
PD is pretty much a Sony sub-branch at this point (and Sony is a VERY rich company) , so all this "not enough money" thing doesn't sound convincing to me. Project CARS 2 got triple the amount of tracks that GTS has (including Spa), and SMS is definitely not as rich (or connected) as PD

Or maybe it is not as simple as i think it is, i dunno
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Don’t think it’s “not enough money” at all. I think it’s more that the license is more than PD want to pay for it! For example, I have enough money to buy a MacBook Pro but i feel like it’s a bit too much money just for a laptop!
 
Enough Spa, I just want to know what's the "licensing issue" for Grand Valley, High Speed Ring, Trial Mountain, Mid-Field, Deep Forest, Apricot Hill, Autumn Ring, Special Stage Route 5, *deep breath*, Special Stage Route 11, Red Rock Valley, Tahiti Road, Seattle Circuit, Rome Circuit, El Capitan, Smokey Mountain, La Sierra...
 
wagnerFAM98
Enough Spa, I just want to know what's the "licensing issue" for Grand Valley, High Speed Ring, Trial Mountain, Mid-Field, Deep Forest, Apricot Hill, Autumn Ring, Special Stage Route 5, *deep breath*, Special Stage Route 11, Red Rock Valley, Tahiti Road, Seattle Circuit, Rome Circuit, El Capitan, Smokey Mountain, La Sierra...
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Gran Turismo 7? Because Poly obviously knows how much we miss these tracks. Except one or two, I don't expect original tracks in GTSport, too much value for a simple game update.
 
The thing with that whole story is that the community is definitely not helping here by being extremely vocal about the Spa subject.

Also, that cost issue is not "we can't afford it", but rather "I don't want to pay my beer pint the same price as a champagne magnum" (I might be exagerating a bit there but you get the idea). In a game where the track count is still lacking, what's the best thing for the game, investing in a single hyped track, or get several others ? And as mentionned in the article, paying what they're asking for currently (which seems to be unprecedented amounts of money in track licensing, looks like it's in the 7 digits range) would open the door for other tracks to ask similar amounts, and that would increase overall costs a lot for the game. You can't have that with free DLCs, and you can't really have paid DLCs when you try to get more players into your competitions.
 
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sems4arsenal
Kinda different here. I wholeheartedly against exclusive tracks, but re-Spa -- It will absolutely lead to many tracks following and the racing game genre could really do without added cost.
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Not really. One act actively limits every other developer from even trying to get the track into their game.* The other is one developer not agreeing to the price the track is asking — which I should add I believe it probably is some outrageous amount.

There's even a long running rumour that this has been going on for years with the Japanese circuits and most Western developers. PD is unlikely to be the first dev to run into this situation.

* - Well, unless you go the T10/EA/Porsche route, which saw Turn 10 having to pay EA to sub-license. Which I imagine we'll all agree is a dangerous precedent.
 
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Vspectra
How up-to-date is this source though. Because just last week at the Paris FIA event we got reports at a round-table with Kaz that Spa is coming soon. So depending on the timing of this source, PD could have worked out a deal already.
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Looking at that French site, the first article written right after that Spa controversy article was about how after the first Nations Cup race, Hizal is off to the strongest start, so I'd say that's a pretty recent source.
 
I’m sure it will arrive eventually and this situation reminds me of Football transfers for example you have Burnley and Manchester City wanting to buy the same player of say Fulham but Burnley can only afford 10 million pound and Fulham know they can up the price for ManCity because they are mega rich so Spa being in PC2 is because the price was affordable for SMS however if PD want Spa in GTS it will cost substantially more because the people who own Spa know PD are bigger then SMS and are owned by Sony so there is a bigger purse there.
 
OJT6627
Stupid question, but can't PD just add Spa anyway, just under different name? Said Project CARS does have Suzuka under the name Sakitto, for example
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In reality, Sakitto is not Suzuka. It has just the shape of it. Ian Bell says the license is too pricey and he hopes to add it someday. I´ve heard PD has exclusive license for Pikes Peak, yet, this track is available nowhere.
 

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