Your favorite sports and racing games are disappearing from the story.

Sports and racing games use license contracts to display real players and cars. Licenses eventually expire, and game publishers must renew them, remove content, or remove the game. License issues can quickly remove new games, affecting player access. No victory ads for specific regions were found! Nothing lasts forever, especially in video games. Many of the best sports and racing games disappear from digital stores for no reason. So, what's happening here? No 'native' ads were found in the content area. Sports and racing games depend on license contracts. Ubisoft, many games are based on real cars and professional sports teams, but this is not because developers want to include them. For a game to legally use another company's intellectual property (IP) or copyrighted material, the game publisher must license the IP from the rights holder. People who create games without licenses can potentially be sued for copyright infringement. These rules apply not just to major brands, but also to vehicles, logos, songs, and even similar appearances of famous people. These licenses should not be confused with Creative Commons (CC) licenses. CC licenses allow the use of copyrighted works under specific conditions. Once a license is obtained, the publisher does not gain the right to use the IP freely. License contracts specify how the licensed property can be used and how long it can be used. Some license contracts include multiple releases within a specific period, while others apply only to a single game. License contracts are only valid for a specific period and eventually expire. When a license expires, the developer can pay to renew it, update it to remove licensed content, or expire the license. However, each of these choices has drawbacks. Renewing a license allows the game publisher to continue selling games using licensed materials, but it comes with costs. Even if the license for rarely used songs is not expensive, securing rights from popular car manufacturers or sports organizations can be very costly. If licensed content is not essential for a game, it can be removed through game update patches. According to an update in 2018, over 50 songs were removed from the radio station in the Grand Theft Auto 4 game due to license issues. This approach does not apply to all games. Sports and racing games cannot remove brand vehicles or entire teams through patches when licenses expire. Brand content is an important part of these genres, and removing such elements from games will certainly inconvenience players. Game publishers report that they invest time and money in renewing licenses for old games because they believe investing in new releases is a better choice. Unfortunately, this leads to many old racing and sports games' licenses expiring, making publishers unable to sell them. This is not a huge loss for publishers, but their revenue comes from selling new releases. However, this significantly affects our ability to access old games. What happens when a license expires? Lucas Gouveia / How-To Geek | Dado Photos / Shutterstock When a license contract expires, the publisher loses the right to continue selling the game during the period the license was valid. Most license contracts only affect a single game and downloadable content. However, some license contracts handle multiple games, and their expiration can lead to sudden removals. This affected the entire industry in 2023 when game developer Elite Count lost the rights to the "FIFA" branding. This is similar to when the FIFA series was removed from digital stores. Even after games are removed from stores, most games can still be played on physical discs without being affected by these license issues. Players can still download games from digital libraries, but after removal from sales, they can only play physical copies if they purchase them from third-party sellers before the removal. Don't wait for games to be removed. Some titles are removed without prior warning, but most developers announce such removals several months in advance. In early 2024, Playground Games plans to remove Forza Horizon 4 from all digital stores starting December 14, 2024. Forza Horizon 3 has already been removed. Similarly, Motorsport Games will no longer be able to use their NASCAR brand games after December 31, 2024. Currently, these games are listed at significant discounts, and players have the last chance to buy them before they disappear. Why are new games being quickly sanctioned? Video game licenses are not a new phenomenon, but they have become clearer over time. Recently released games like FIFA 23 and F1 22 have already been sanctioned due to license issues in 2024. This has always been a risk for racing and sports games, but it seems that opportunities to buy these games are decreasing each year. Part of the problem is that publishers consider racing and sports games, especially those with annual releases, as consumables. Series like the NBA 2K and

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