Victor Omega
Member
Spiderman the character is an asset within The SPIDER-MAN Franchise. The Franchise, like every Marvel property, is divided into 3 divisions: Comics, Film, and Merchandise* (I'll come back to this later).
Marvel itself is divided into Marvel Entertainment (Comics & Merchandise) and Marvel Studios (Film, e.i. MCU).
When Spiderman shows up in Comics and Merchandise, Marvel Entertainment owns the rights.
Before Marvel was bought by Disney and was selling all its assets (to avoided bankruptcy), Sony bought the film rights to the Spiderman...character in 1998. To this day, its Marvels own fault for making an unrecoverable deal saying: Paraphrasing, "As long as you keep making content, you keep ownership"
*But Spiderman in video games is clearly Merchandise, answer:
No. Sony does not own the rights to the spiderman game, Sony Admits Selling Spider-Man Merchandising Rights Were Short-Sighted
Summarize:
Sony owns the Film rights to Spiderman characters (Spiderman, sinister six, Venom, etc)
Sony used to own the Merchandise right to Spiderman video game, but in recent years has had a partnership with Marvel Entertainment to produce games.
Sony (through Columbia Pictures) and Marvel Studios are in a partnership with the Spiderman film rights.
Pre Disney Marvel sold its character Film rights to avoid bankruptcy, keeping comics rights for themselves.
Disney bought Marvel and thus created Marvel Studios to produce films with the remaining characters they still had.
Marvel itself is divided into Marvel Entertainment (Comics & Merchandise) and Marvel Studios (Film, e.i. MCU).
When Spiderman shows up in Comics and Merchandise, Marvel Entertainment owns the rights.
Before Marvel was bought by Disney and was selling all its assets (to avoided bankruptcy), Sony bought the film rights to the Spiderman...character in 1998. To this day, its Marvels own fault for making an unrecoverable deal saying: Paraphrasing, "As long as you keep making content, you keep ownership"
*But Spiderman in video games is clearly Merchandise, answer:
No. Sony does not own the rights to the spiderman game, Sony Admits Selling Spider-Man Merchandising Rights Were Short-Sighted
Summarize:
Sony owns the Film rights to Spiderman characters (Spiderman, sinister six, Venom, etc)
Sony used to own the Merchandise right to Spiderman video game, but in recent years has had a partnership with Marvel Entertainment to produce games.
Sony (through Columbia Pictures) and Marvel Studios are in a partnership with the Spiderman film rights.
Pre Disney Marvel sold its character Film rights to avoid bankruptcy, keeping comics rights for themselves.
Disney bought Marvel and thus created Marvel Studios to produce films with the remaining characters they still had.
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Consumer-Pay Business Models. Marvel shall have the right during each Picture Release Window to exploit Interactive Applications on any basis, using any business or economic model of any nature, which seeks to collect revenue directly from consumers for the privilege of playing or using the Interactive Application, including without limitation the following: (I) any business model in which the consumer is required to pay a fee to purchase, download, license or otherwise play the applicable Interactive Application, (II) using a “freemium“ model, under which the consumer is permitted to play a limited number of basic levels of the Interactive Application for free in order to induce the consumer to pay a fee to purchase, download, license or otherwise play additional levels of the applicable Interactive Application, (III) free-to-play games that derive revenue by explicitly prompting the consumer to pay for in-game commercial features (e.g., micro-transactions such as virtual property transactions for real money), and/or (IV) subscription services which charge the consumer a periodic fee for the right to play one or more interactive applications including Interactive Applications. During each Picture Release Window, no Interactive Application conducted or authorized by Marvel, and all related elements, taken as a whole, may (I) violate any of the ARG Protection Limitations, and/or (II) constitute, in the reasonable opinion of consumers, an alternative reality game provided however, that the forgoing limitations shall not apply to any Qualifying Subscription ARG, Qualifying Marvel Family ARG or Grandfathered Agreement. As used herein, “Qualifying Subscription ARG“ shall mean an Alternative Reality Game relating to the Property where the consumer pays a material subscription fee of not less than the greater of (i) $5 per month (excluding non-public beta testing and limited-time free trials not to exceed two [2] months in duration; provided that Marvel may not offer free trials during the six [6] month period prior to then-targeted initial theatrical release date of the applicable Picture in the applicable territory) or (ii) the customary subscription fee in the industry at the time for high-quality subscription-model massively multi-player on-line games.
