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Formula One Gaming Rights – Update

Posted on May 7th, 2008 in Other Sim Racing – 10 Comments

The last official Formula One game was released over a year ago and it looks like Sony’s Formula One Championship edition for Playstation 3 will have to wait a little longer to get a successor.

According to the TG Daily website, talks between Sony and Bernie Ecclestone over renewing their license have come to a halt. The biggest reason is obviously the price tag as Sony paid 200 million dollars for the past license which covered five seasons.

According to TG Daily, Sony is not willing to spend that amount of cash again, a reasonable decision considering that Sony is not in the most healthiest of financial states and the Playstation 3 is still somewhat struggling against Microsoft’s XBOX 360. Furthermore, Formula One games have never made a big impact on the US market which is very important for console games.

Sony’s hesitation brings up interest from other companies as EA, Ubisoft and Codemasters are all looking to get a piece of the F1 cake. The question is, are the rights really worth that much? The new contract will again cover a span of five years, putting quite some pressure of the (un)lucky company that gets the license. To compensate the 200 million investment, you pretty much have to put out a game each year…and that has never been a quality-raising method in the past.


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  • http://jesper-dh.blogspot.com Jesper

    Good to hear :cool: but we still got nothing if it isn’t a simulation. :cry:

  • Anonymous

    It’ll never be simulation again i think, damn :(

  • pascaljackson

    lets spend isi 200millions :grin: :lol:

  • Anonymous

    With 5 million PS3s sold, Sony has announced that they’ve overtaken the 360 in Europe. I would expect Europe to be the main market for F1 games so, don’t be surprised to see Sony back at the table pretty soon.

  • uhm

    Bernie, you )/&%/¤&%#&¤#”(/&%(%¤()

  • MJ

    F1 is all about money, or should I say “Bernie is all about money” ?
    Man, game-producers are better off making a game with IRL cars then F1.

  • deks

    One thing I would like to say: Does this really bother simracing community? With all those great F1 mods? When you look how “sims” nowadays look, if someone pays that amount of money we can only expect some “user friendly” game, surely no hardcore sim..

  • Pstar

    What deks said is so true. It’s really just up to the mod community. None of the companies who make good sims will pay that kind of $$$.

  • Mirko

    Why not create a “Formula TOP” game with – for example – DMW Zauber, Verrari, Rosso Bull, Toro Red, Grenault, McTaren, Villiams, Onda Racing, Force Tindia, Toiota… and… Kiwi Raiconen, Filipe Mazza, Levis Emilton.. etc.. etc…?
    I think in this way no license needed.

    Bye,
    miRko

  • x mirko

    the problem if you do not have a licence, are not the names of the pilots and cars. but the possibility of not reproduce in the chassis real, and the creation of circuits, where there may be identical to contoparti real. but just like that reflects the real one.

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