EA’s Porsche Licencing Deal Ends after 16 Years!
Peter Donnell / 8 years ago
EA scooped up the rights to Porsche a staggering 16 years ago, locking the car brand to their developers and games, and leaving many other racing games with some rather glaring omissions. Now it seems that deal has finally come to an end, and we should soon start seeing other developers picking up deals with Porsche to include their cars!
Assetto Corsa is already pushing ahead with this, with the game now featuring Porsche cars, but we expect other big name series will follow suit soon, most likely with DLC updates and car packs. Sebastian Hornung, the Porsche brand Entertainment Manager, told SpeedManiacs that the deal ended this year, and it seems the company are eager to branch out.
When you think that this deal is 16 years long, that means that EA have had exclusives on Porsche cars in games since Need For Speed: Porsche Unleashed in 2000, and while we’ve seen a few in games like Forza 4, Turn 10 had to broker a deal with EA to be allowed to do it, helping them make money of a racing game they didn’t even develop or publish.
“We continue to have an excellent, long-standing relationship with Porsche,” said EA in a statement, via Polygon. “We mutually agreed earlier this year to continue our relationship under a non-exclusive licensing agreement, and we will continue to feature Porsche cars in future EA racing games.”
You’ll still see EA using the brand, but they’re pretty much fair game for other developers too. So expect to see Forza, Gran Turismo and more getting updates in the near future.
