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EA Blocks Porsches In Forza 4
Developer Turn 10 Studios included Porsches in the last game, but series producer Dan Greenawalt explains why they won't be in Forza 4.
In a Q&A on the Forza blog, Greenawalt explains that it's all down to a sub-licensing agreement with EA – or the lack thereof. EA has the official Porsche license (originally made for Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed), and in the past the company has sub-licensed it out to Microsoft and others so they could include the legendary car manufacturer in various games. But not this time.
"We've asked our contacts at EA to reconsider their position frequently and regularly over the last 18 months. We also reached out to various influential people in gaming to lobby on our behalf, and on your behalf, but that was to no avail," he wrote on the blog.
Greenawalt pointed out how when the shoe was on the other foot with the Ferrari license, Forza cooperated. "Forza had the exclusive license for all Ferrari cars, for example, on the Xbox and PC platforms. But at the end of the day, we've always found that we just weren't willing to block other racing games from having Ferraris outright, as we believed that this would do nothing but hurt the racing ecosystem."
At least Forza 4 has three RUF cars in the game. RUF is a manufacturer that uses unmarked Porsche bodies and chassis, and which has served as the usual video game Porsche stand-in through the years.
While it's not surprising that EA would want to protect its licensing agreement, we're surprised that this isn't one of those problems that could have been solved by good old fashioned money. Perhaps Microsoft wasn't willing to pay this time.
Then again, EA is using Porsches in Need For Speed: The Run (shown), which comes out on November 15. Forza 4 comes out on October 11, so perhaps EA didn't want a Porsche overlap.
[via CVG]
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