Reports from June 2015 first suggested Porsche will be free from game publisher EA's stranglehold after more than a decade of exclusive licensing. However, the news was taken with a grain of salt as nothing can be certain until Porsche confirms the report.
It's been a long time coming. In fact, we wondered if this day would ever come at all. Via racing sim news site GTPlanet, German site SpeedManiacs spoke with Porsche Branded Entertainment Manager Sebastian Hornung about the automaker's video game license and how the recent Assetto Corsa game managed to bring Porsches to its game:
“According to Sebastian, they were also always following what was going on in the gaming industry aside from EA," SpeedManiacs reported. "The license with EA runs out this year, because together they arrived at the realization that the current situation was not desirable anymore.”
While Porsche vehicles are consistently well represented in EA's Need for Speed franchise, racing fans that prefer the more popular and more realistic titles, Turn 10's Forza Motorsports or Polyphony's Gran Turismo, have resorted to RUF licenses to cover Porsche's absence.
The EA-Porsche exclusivity license was never desirable and it's surprising that it took the parties this long to make this realization. As one of the most legendary sports car makes in the world and the self-proclaimed "winningest carmaker in history," Porsche's exclusivity deal only caused itself to miss out on big Esports and competitive racing events like GT Academy, which has not only invigorated the racing game genre, but is also responsible for attracting a new generation of car enthusiasts and even cultivating new professional-level talent to real-life motorsports.
What Porsche decides to do with its license when its deal with EA ends is up to them, but a new deal with the likes of Forza and Sony's upcoming Gran Turismo Sport sounds like a no-brainer to us.
Are you excited for the end of Porsche's exclusive license with EA? Let us know in the comments section below.
