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No Porsche in Forza 4, "EA couldn’t see their way towards collaborating again"

Dan Greenawalt, director of the Forza Motorsport series, explains why Forza 4 won't feature cars from the German manufacturer:

What’s the status of Porsche in Forza Motorsport 4? 
 
This kills me. While Forza Motorsport 4 will feature RUF, it will not include Porsche cars. As many of you know, since the beginning of the Forza franchise, the Porsche license has been available only through a sub-licensing deal with EA. In Forza 3, we were able to feature more than 35 different Porsche models by offering to collaborate with EA. For Forza 4, we were looking forward to adding even more Porsche cars, and we were especially looking forward to featuring multiple Porsche experiences in our new Autovista mode. In the end, however, EA couldn’t see their way towards collaborating again.  
 
We’ve asked our contacts at EA to reconsider their position frequently and regularly over the last 18 months. We also reached out to various influential people in gaming to lobby on our behalf, and on your behalf, but that was to no avail.  
 
In our business, we stay friendly with all of the manufacturers and licensors necessary to deliver players rich and innovative automotive experiences. As you’d expect, this includes quite a few key people in Porsche circles. To make sure we tried everything, we consulted with these advocates and were happy to find they were already aware of the situation and lobbying from within on behalf of Forza 4--and, despite the result, we thank them for their efforts.  
 
While we respect EA’s need to run their business as they see fit, we’ve regularly collaborated in the past and hope we can find our way back to that approach. Forza had the exclusive license for all Ferrari cars, for example, on the Xbox and PC platforms. But at the end of the day, we’ve always found that we just weren’t willing to block other racing games from having Ferraris outright, as we believed that this would do nothing but hurt the racing ecosystem. 
 
I’m very sorry for all of this. Fans shouldn’t have to think about any of this – you should just be able to drive Porsches and Ferraris in the games you love. Porsche makes wonderful cars and I’m sorry that we won’t have them in Forza 4.
As I mentioned earlier, we have added three RUF cars in Forza 4. RUF is a manufacturer in their own right, not simply an aftermarket mod shop—they completely remanufacture and enhance the models that they start from, and the results are unique, incredibly fast, and the cars look great. Losing more than 35 Porsche models is a lost opportunity for Porsche fans (as well as a lost opportunity to make future Porsche fans), but I hope that Forza 4 players understand and enjoy the new makes and models that have taken their place.
http://forzamotorsport.net/en-us/underthehood1/

And another reason to hate EA. I'm not a Porsche fan, but business practices like this really need to stop.
 

Frankfurt

Banned
So EA was allowed to use Ferrari, but they didn't reciprocate by allowing Turn 10 to use Porsche?

Class act as always, EA.
 

StudioTan

Hold on, friend! I'd love to share with you some swell news about the Windows 8 Metro UI! Wait, where are you going?

AEREC

Member
Was never a big porsche fan to begin with...as long as ferrari's are in Ill be ok. I guess since EA is competing in the sim-ish arena now, I cant blame them for not sharing thier licences with competitors.
 

DJ_Lae

Member
Well, shit.

I'd been hoping all the rumours were wrong the past few months, but I guess not. It's just EA being a bunch of cunts (I guess the Porsche license is one of the few draws they have left for the Shift series).
 

Slayer-33

Liverpool-2
Frankfurt said:
So EA was allowed to use Ferrari, but they didn't reciprocate by allowing Turn 10 to use Porsche?

Class act as always, EA.



EA as a company is scumbagery defined.


JWong said:
lol Dan's blaming EA?

Classless.


The only classes pieces of shit are EA.
 
are people gonna bitch when T10 decide it doesn't want to share the Top Gear licence?

heck I am still a little bitter that the top gear content in GT5 mysteriously got toned down after that Forza deal was announced. (challenge the stig getting dropped for "drive a bus around the top gear track lol")



I think since EA have the multiplatform exclusive Porsche and they had a deal to only share that with T10 I hope this is a sign that EA will start sharing that licence with Gran Turismo and the codemaster guys.


If I was a betting man I would say Turn 10 wanted EA to keep the licence NFS and Forza exclusive... EA turned it down.

Trading the Multiplat Porsche licence for the 360/PC only ferrari licence doesn't seem far.. you end up with crap like the 360 exclusive ferrari shift DLC.


Still......everyone seems like dicks in this situation.
 
Hey Peter it's MGS's Turn 10, how you doing?
Good good, yeah were not so bad beavering away at Forza 4, anyways the reason we are calling is we need a favour.
Oh no no it's not that big, we just wondered if you could talk to some dudes at EA and make the Porsche thing happen? Y'know for ole times sake
WHAT?!
That's charming, god damn you motherf...

EA hangs up.
 

inky

Member
FutureZombie said:
They had nothing to do with ME, correct?

If by nothing you mean they developed and published it, sure. :p

By ME I meant Mirror's Edge, sorry if there was confusion.
 

user_nat

THE WORDS! They'll drift away without the _!
Does the deal between EA and Porsche ever expire? They've had it for what.. 12 years?
Or do they just keep renewing it?
Surely having Porsche exclusively in NFS isn't valuable to EA, I can't imagine the majority of NFS fans really care.

Not that MS doesn't have their own exclusivity stupidness (which isn't really T10s fault).
 
The Top Gear license is totally different than a manufacturer. It's presentation only.

Losing an entire brand sinks. Oh, and Turn 10 is already winning the PR war on this issue.
 

Wazzim

Banned
This is all because EA wants to act tough with their silly new NFS game. Nobody will buy that shit EA, even if it has Porsche as exclusive. Why? Because your shit fucking sucks, I'd rather watch old episodes of Pimp my fucking Ride (X to the Z man) then 'playing' some quicktime event filled Spyware-exclusive borefest.
 
Family Fry said:
Hey Peter it's MGS's Turn 10, how you doing?
Good good, yeah were not so bad beavering away at Forza 4, anyways the reason we are calling is we need a favour.
Oh no no it's not that big, we just wondered if you could talk to some dudes at EA and make the Porsche thing happen? Y'know for ole times sake
WHAT?!
That's charming, god damn you motherf...

EA hangs up.

EoHDl.jpg
 

Slayer-33

Liverpool-2
user_nat said:
Does the deal between EA and Porsche ever expire? They've had it for what.. 12 years?
Or do they just keep renewing it?
Surely having Porsche exclusively in NFS isn't valuable to EA, I can't imagine the majority of NFS fans really care.


Porsche doesn't even highlight the NFS series, if anything Lamborghini has been the centerpiece icon for the most part with the exception of Porsche Unleashed for this franchise.

The decision makers at EA are just a collective bunch of assholes and douchebags.


As many of you know, since the beginning of the Forza franchise, the Porsche license has been available only through a sub-licensing deal with EA. In Forza 3, we were able to feature more than 35 different Porsche models by offering to collaborate with EA. For Forza 4, we were looking forward to adding even more Porsche cars, and we were especially looking forward to featuring multiple Porsche experiences in our new Autovista mode. In the end, however, EA couldn’t see their way towards collaborating again.

Jesus EA doesn't have any shame? Wheres the fucking harm?

AUTOVISTA youmad.jpg'ing you?
 

Kintaro

Worships the porcelain goddess
Not surprised.

Wazzim said:
This is all because EA wants to act tough with their silly new NFS game. Nobody will buy that shit EA, even if it has Porsche as exclusive. Why? Because your shit fucking sucks, I'd rather watch old episodes of Pimp my fucking Ride (X to the Z man) then 'playing' some quicktime event filled Spyware-exclusive borefest.

As pointed out in other threads, Need for Speed sells like a mother fucker. The Run will be no exception.
 

DiscoJer

Member
Boo. The 959 is one of my favorite cars, even if it is always a bitch to drive in Forza (in 2, it would damage itself somehow, and in 3, it drives like a cow)
 

Amagon

Member
Today is the day that EA has taken the crown away from Activision for being the Grand Assholes of Gaming. And since Steve Jobs resigned from Apple, I feel like were back in the 90's again.
 

Slayer-33

Liverpool-2
And T10 holds the Ferrari license and they allow everyone in some way to use it (put the cars in their games) right?


What fucking dickery EA... God dammit, it's shit like this that pisses me off.
 
Peter Moore: "come on Dan, you need to put your back into it if you want those Porsches. Seabass gives better head than this and we don't give him shit."
 
Frankfurt said:
So EA was allowed to use Ferrari, but they didn't reciprocate by allowing Turn 10 to use Porsche?

Class act as always, EA.
I don't know if they were allowed to use Ferraris or not, but Hot Pursuit 2010 didn't have any Ferraris and that was the first indication that their cross licensing deal was falling apart.
 
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