Ea, porsche and all the racing sims/games

It is just brand exposure. Having your car in numerous video games increase the chances of your car being shown to potential buyer who can afford it. For example, a kid might be playing GT6 on his PS3 everyday driving a Pagani Huayra. Then, one day, a wealthy uncle of his came to visit him and saw the Huayra which made him interested in that car. If he hasnt saw the Huayra at his PS3, he might not even consider a Huayra. That is why manufacturers likes to license their cars into movies, merchandises and games because it is essentially product placement without people objecting ads shoving right in their faces. A the same time, they still make money from licensing which cost them little to license their cars out to different companies while showing their products to much more potential customers. If I am not wrong, Lamborghini charges close to 1 million dollars for licensing into your product where if you pay for the licensing, they literally made a million dollars by just borrowing their logos and designs.

At the end, cars like Porsche is literally out of reach for most of us but having maximum exposure via the cars appearing in numerous games increases marketing exposure compared to having Porsche limited to just 2 games among dozens of racing games in the market. This isnt the 90s where we only have a handful of racing games with real licenses as even sims alone, we have almost half a dozen these days. It is also a business opportunity for everyone as if Kunos license Porsche, Porsche make some money over it. Kunos will also make money from Porsche DLCs for AC as most of us would willingly throw them money to have Porsche in the game.

 

Developers clearly make money off this and that is fine, that was not the question.
You gave me a nice example of something that COULD happen. So far from what I saw, this brand exposure is aimed at the wrong demographics. Meaning the actual gains are minimal if actual sales resulted from this exposure are considered.
I can imagine nobody can get any actual numbers of games resulting in exotic sales because companies don't just release these figures. Until then this Porsche are shooting them in the foot because of their videogame exposure policies is just an assumption.

 

These exotic cars are never meant to sell in huge numbers like a Mondeo or Camry which is why every opportunity of product placement counts. Why limit your brand to just 2 games, ie: Real Racing 3 and NFS Rivals while you can license your brand to numerous Forza, GT, AC, rFactor, pCARS, Grid and so on which evidently, you are showing your car to a much larger audience which also increases the chance of letting someone who is wealthy enough to own it to know about your brand?

Even if there are actual numbers, will Porsche even reveal? At the end, it is all about maximising your brand exposure to the potential customer in the market. Game licensing is actually a very small part of a manufacturer licensing as most of the exposure still lies on merchandising. Still, every bit counts which is what Porsche is missing out since Porsche isnt an everyday brand than most can afford like Toyota.

More importantly, due to this dodgy licensing deal with EA, the brand that is gaining recognition these days is Ruf as their license is very easy to obtain while they also grant you quite a fair bit of creative freedom with their brand. When you are selling exotics, the main thing is to let people know your brand's existence, not limit it.

This dodgy deal with EA and Porsche can be seen as anticompetitive as they are starving off all their competitors from this license by hogging it all to themselves.

 

List price for a new Cayman in the UK is just under £40k. OK, That's expensive, but not that expensive when you compare it to the Golf R, BMW 1M and similar that are in the same price range.

 

The fact that Porsche still make some of the best sportscars and racecars in the world is a reason alone for having them in simulators.Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't Porsche the one's that benefit from this? Their products are being advertised and they are the ones that are getting payed at the same time.I'm a huge Porsche fan, maybe even a fanboy sometimes, I'd love to see them in AC, but as some people stated, their view on videogames is very outdated and not very smart.
@Mogster: Yes, the Cayman and Boxsters are quite amazing cars, but the base price, like in any german car, is quite feature-less.Sure, you get all the important basics, but things such as PASM and Porsche Torque Vectoring are optional stuff, alongside other things I can't rememberP).Yet, even with those options, they still come up as pretty good value, considering the praise that they receive from motoring journalists and owners.Let's just hope Porsche wake up and realise they're wrong about this partnership with EA, it's not too late, especially for AC's future.

 

A mate of mine bought an old 80s Porsche after he graduated from uni. Cost him a fair bit at the time, I think he bought it at the right time though, because the value has shot up a bit since. Maybe I could get in touch and we could just licence his Porsche? I think he would be easier to deal with than Porsche themselves.

 

I think that Marco, next time he gets a chance, will give print screens of these posts to CEO of Porsche.

 

I do find this situation fascinating and would love to know exactly what's gone on behind the scenes.

I wouldn't be surprised to find out that there's some incestuous link between Porsche and EA at a corporate level. EA must have some leverage over Porsche...

 

The initial price is the smallest issue. It's the running cost for these cars. Insurance (you'd want full converage in case you do something stupid with it), maintenance, parts exchange, all this is much more costly than with your average car.

I calculated a small business case for me deciding between the M3 E92 or the Lotus Elise. The difference in cost of ownership was staggering. That said, with Porsche you can factor in a relatively small depreciation, which is benefitial. But I did not buy my Elise thinking about resale

 

The country I am currently staying in, even a Cayman cost like 3 times of the you get in UK. A Porsche is pretty much out of reach for me or pretty much anyone who doesnt stay in a first world country.

There is a reason why I like racing games, because I get to drives cars that I otherwise cannot afford in real life. Especially companies like Kunos and others that put in extra care and attention to recreate the car as close to reality as possible in the game.

 

That's even more reason to have Porsche officially in AC and other sims too.

 

I hate this topic so much! I think we will never get any Porsche into a sim game! Only one company, Automaniax AG, made it in the past and got the licence for simulation games (Yes, there is a licence difference between arcade and simulation games licencing) but only with the help of Porsche itself. Even for Porsche itself, it was a huge battle with EA and licensing lawers to get the licence to a company for a sim game.

But this Automaniax company f****ed up this deal and so nothing changed.

So i think the only way to get Porsche in a sim game is, if Porsche itself would have interest in such a game. So never say never, but i think we have to live with Ruf and Darche things for the rest of our sim racing career.

 

Uh, that is a grim prediction of the future of sim racing regarding Porsche. I hope you will be proven wrong for all our sakes.

P.S. Don't hate the topic, hate the issue related to the subject of the topic if you want.

 

I hate it because i was part of the developement team of Automaniax AG! That´s why i know all about Porsche licencing stuff...

 

I doubt that they have much choice. Licensing deals work both ways.

 

Without knowing the actual terms it's impossible to say. It might be what Porsche want. It might net them loads of cash. They might
have made a big mistake signing away long term exclusive rights.

I doubt having your car in a game or not affects sales at all. Indeed, I doubt there's actually any legal basis for suing anyone who puts a 3d model of a car and its name in a game. Trademark won't cover it (because Porsche don't see games, they sell cars)

I think developers / publishers were worried and went with wheelbarrows of cash - and, of course, no one wants to spend the time and money in court finding out and modders probably just run scared if threatened. But, for example, when Manchester Cathedral was put in a game no one had to pay them. I can take a picture of my car and put it on the web. I don't have to pay anyone to use its name or image.

Of course, developers are probably happy to pay these days to get access to data rather than for "licensing" per se even if it's part of the same thing (although I can't really see this is the case for NFS or any arcade titles, there really are no Porsches or any other cars in any EA games)

Let's face it if Lotus cared about how their cars appeared in games they would have sued the
developers and publishers of Shift 2 the day of the game's release.

 

Hey thinking about all this for a while, I came up with this thought:
You're mister Porsche. For years now, video game developers, Greenwalts, Yamauchis and other Massaruttos banged at your door desperately begging you to let them include your models into their games no matter what the price is. How would you feel? Maybe you'd think "gosh I'm so important to these poor lads but video games? I have no time for games. This popular subculture is so low on my interest list, I don't want to have anything to do with people playing games. I made a concession to EA years ago and that's more than enough. Don't wanna sell my soul like all the other manufacturers do. I'm so different. You wanna drive a Porsche? Buy one."

I mean how many Porsches do you see in movies for example? I can't even recall the last time I've seen a Porsche in a movie, they're rather filled with Mercedes, BMWs, Audis, Astons, Fords and other japanese brands like Nissan or stuff. It's as if they wanted to keep their image away from "popular" cultures and by this absence, maybe they think they're rarer, unaffordable and therefore more desirable. The behavior of game developers speaks for them and I could understand this point of view, even though I think they're wrong, for all the reasons that have already been listed in this thread. Good advertising never hurt any company and video games are darn good advertising.

 

I think there is some actual overlap between ownership of high performance cars and ownership of sim racing games.

I have owned two Porsches, the last being a 2008 911 Turbo Cabriolet (photo of dash board is my profile picture). I sold it two years ago. If you like to drive high performance cars it makes sense that you would get involved in sim racing.

Actually sim racing was one of the reasons I sold the Porsche. The cost of maintenance, particularly tires, made ownership very expensive and driving a sim is a more practical way of driving fast without the practical issues associated with real life high speed driving.

 

Porsche is totally different! I was in the last years on many races and in the Porsche Hospitality, worked together with the management of Porsche...so i know they are not interested in any relation to sim racing, because Porsche drivers are not interested in driving their cars in virtual. They all have the money to buy the car and drive in real live. Only a few handfull of real Porsche race drivers using simulators. As we of Automaniax had a booth with a Porsche GT3 Cup sim game, almost only the children of those guys and some "freaks" shown interest in this sim.

The other thing is, sim racing is too small to gather the attention of Porsche marketing so why should you pay attention, spend money for nothing? Porsche has almost no chance to get out of the EA deal...

@Freddie: Hiere is a list of movies with Porsche cars involved

 

Damn, to bad you sold that car...

Don't tell me it's the same thing to drive it in a racing sim or in real life... not to mention since Porsche is not officially in any sim, it's ever harder to find one virtually and when you do is not official content.

If you really wanted to sell it, you could at least bought a "cheaper" Porsche like a Cayman and use the difference to afford maintenance. By the way, what car do you have now?