14 DAY TRIAL // Turn 10, the development company working on the racing game Forza Motorsport 4, has announced that it has failed to conclude a deal with rights holder Electronic Arts, which means that Porsche branded cars will not be included in the title when it is released during 2011.
Publisher Electronic Arts has had the right to create video game cars based on Porsche models for some time and has used them in the Need for Speed series.
Other Forza games were able to feature the vehicles through the sub-licensing deal that has now expired.
Brian Ekberg, who is a developer at Turn 10 working on Forza Motorsport 4, has stated in a blog post that, “EA couldn’t see their way towards collaborating again. This kills me. ... We've asked our contacts at EA to reconsider their position frequently and regularly over the last 18 months.”
He added, “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.”
The developers says that Turn 10 has always been receptive when other video game developers wanted to secure the rights to feature Ferrari cars in their racing titles and believes that Electronic Arts and his own company will soon enter a new round of negotiations and Porsche cars will be seen in Forza Motorsport 4.
The fact that EA is unwilling to share the rights for the iconic cars might be a sign that it is preparing a Need for Speed titles that focuses on them, perhaps like the aptly titled Porsche entry in the series, which arrived in 2000.
Forza Motorsport 4 will be launched during the summer of 2012 and will be exclusive to the Xbox 360 home gaming console from Sony.
The game will use the Kinect motion tracking system to allow player to explore their cars and their engines.