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More Sony Tidbits
SONY BAGS FOUR-YEAR F1 DEAL
Exclusive license rights...
Sony has revealed that Formula One 2003, due this July, will be
the first game to be published under a new deal with the Formula
One official governing body, the FIA, that will see exclusive
rights to the license remain in Sony's hands for the next four
years.
"This four year exclusive relationship is the basis for a
very exciting partnership between the world's leading motorsport
and the most successful video game platform on the planet,"
said Chris Deering, president of Sony Computer Entertainment
Europe.
"Together I believe we will create a totally new consumer
game experience that combines the power of PlayStation 2 with the
exhilaration and spectacle of Formula One and short of pulling on
gloves and a helmet this is as close to being in the drivers seat
as you're going to get."
With EA having gone Multiformat with the last two getting the last moments of life from the license, everyone knew it'd be up for grabs. And hats off to Sony for securing the rights.
However F1 licensing seems to be a
bit of a grey area. Sony seemed to have the exclusive rights
before EA got their hands on the license, with Formula 1 97-99 (great
games i might add too) by Psygnosis (definately made better F1
than EA, thats for sure), but we had semi ports of this in the
form of Formula 1 World Grand Prix. Then on the PC you have the
excellent as always Geoff Crammonds F1 Grand Prix games. So its
always a bizarre state of affairs.
In short, i dont really think that this exclusivity thing is so
much of a big deal, because i'm sure we'll still see F1 on our
Xboxs , Pcs and Gamecubes.
If i'm wrong, we still have Indy Car, CART and Toca et al , so
its not too bad.