What TPA proves about licensing in video games

[JoshuaKadmon]

FarSight has illustrated that no idea for a monumental video game should be hindered by licensing. How many concepts have game companies passed on because they would need to jump through too many hoops to make it happen? In that respect, FS has gone above and beyond the expectations of gamers to make their vision a reality, and the Kickstarter responses have proven that players will back a company that pursues a worthwhile project like this. Just as the pinball and video game communities have come together to help make this happen, other higher-thinking development pursuits could follow suit, but what kind of doors would that open?

For example, one idea that a friend and I have discussed for years is a Capcom/SNK vs. Marvel/DC fighting game, which would only require the additional cooperation of DC since the other three have already had a long-standing relationship in Capcom's Versus series. I think players always dismissed the idea because DC and Marvel may not play nice together, but why not? I suppose you can't really use Mortal Kombat vs. DC as a litmus test, since WB now owns Midway and DC licenses, but does that make the concept any less likely? Imagine, 25 characters from each publisher, for a total of 100 in a battle royale, including classic 3-on-3 tag and tournament modes! That would be epic.

What other dream projects could become a reality if licensing disputes were no longer a major obstacle?

 

[gooche77]

The Jetsons meet the Flintstones needs to happen.

 

[Brandon Debes]

Marvel are going to charge a lot more than $45,000 for that. I get the point you're trying to make, but not all licensing deals are created equal. The pricetag variation will span orders of magnitude.

 

[Sinistar]

Well thought out , Joshua , thumbs up. We live in a world of lawyers and greedy corporations , fostered by lawsuit happy individuals looking to get rich off the slightest thing. This has caused a great injury to the creative process in every aspect of entertainment you can think of . It's sad when you think , that when entrepreneurs like FarSight comes asking for permission to use a license , instead of offering a fair compensation fee, they are probably highballed by greedy licensors . If you have the newest issue of Game Informer (Sept) check the article on Disney's Wreck it Ralph film , the bigger licensors like Capcom , Nintendo , and Sega. Were constantly changing the stupidest things for the characters in their cameos, M.Bison is bigger than that, Bowser is larger than he is , Robotnik is bigger, until the dimensions were blocking everyone else in the film out.

What will probably happen is that The Pinball Arcade will go after a big license (like Tron Legacy Pinball or Pirates of the Carribean) , and the licensor will turn them down , and use the idea of making that pinball machine/s their own selves as a store app , with inferior physics and graphics .I wouldn't put it past Disney . This project the TPA is making money , money is like chumming the water for the greedy sharks .

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

I think all TPA proves about licensing is that companies with relatively dormant intellectual property (old pinball tables, the Twilight Zone rights, etc.) that suddenly are approached by a third party interested in said IP are more likely to license their IP under terms favorable enough to make something like TPA possible, especially if the third party is not competing with any of their core business models. Licensing becomes more difficult when the IP in question is in high demand and/or competing IPs (like DC and Marvel) are proposed to be included in the same product.

 

[JoshuaKadmon]

What will probably happen is that The Pinball Arcade will go after a big license (like Tron Legacy Pinball or Pirates of the Carribean) , and the licensor will turn them down , and use the idea of making that pinball machine/s their own selves as a store app , with inferior physics and graphics .I wouldn't put it past Disney . This project the TPA is making money , money is like chumming the water for the greedy sharks .

Yeah, I've assumed from the beginning that Disney/Marvel probably wouldn't cooperate on the TPA licensing, even if Stern's SAM technology wasn't an issue for the newer tables. Serenseven makes a good point, too, that "relatively dormant" IPs will remain the most viable for FarSight, but that shouldn't suggest that more active IPs would be impossible.

Marvel are going to charge a lot more than $45,000 for that. I get the point you're trying to make, but not all licensing deals are created equal. The pricetag variation will span orders of magnitude.

Marvel isn't an issue, even after the Disney merger. They've already made quite a few Versus titles with Capcom, and SNK has done the same. Yes, they probably both get paid plenty of cash for their licenses, but Capcom is also a much larger financial powerhouse than FarSight. Capcom spends upwards of $50 million on its big releases, and they're currently Japan's highest-grossing game developer/publisher. If anyone has the ability to shut down licensing quibbles with cash flow, it should be Capcom.

None of that's really the point, though. The Capcom/SNK vs. Marvel/DC concept is just an example of how a company could go a step further than consumers expect in order to craft something truly special. And in a divisive industry that has become Mainstream Retail Blockbuster or Independent Network Release only, with little originality in-between, seeing the big guys tackle a landmark project like this would be cool. As it stands, only the smaller, independent studios like FarSight seem willing to work extra hard to gain fan attention by creating something unique. In a sense, I see TPA as being far more "important" than yet another Call of Duty, regardless of the huge budget disparity between such projects.

 

[JoshuaKadmon]

Heh, I just thought of something funny. You know how Capcom once made Puzzle Fighter II by combining Tetris / Dr. Mario puzzle mechanics with special move execution from their fighting games, right? I always thought it would be more fun if they included Puzzle Fighter modes as mini-games in their big fighting game releases, like Super Street Fighter II or Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. But what if we got a Pinball Fighter mode instead?

Think about it - three rounds, three balls, punches and kicks for flipper taps, specials for target hits, combos for cleared table goals, etc. You could just have each table as a fighting stage, with two characters facing off at the bottom of the screen. And as certain point thresholds are met, the player character would back up his/her opponent further. Knockdowns at ball out would be determined by how far back that opponent had been pushed back, and if the player successfully knocks down the opponent 2 out of the 3 balls/rounds, they would move to the next table/stage. Essentially, the fight results would roughly correspond to how well the player did on the pinball table. Tell me that wouldn't be an awesome mini-game for a fighting game, and it would spread the pinball love into yet another sub-genre of video gaming! Just a thought...

 

[Brandon Debes]

That is the best god damned idea I've ever ****ing heard right there.

 

[JoshuaKadmon]

That is the best god damned idea I've ever ****ing heard right there.

Thanks, Brandon. I think it would be fun, but I doubted anyone else would think much of the idea. Too bad Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is such a let-down. Maybe I could get in touch with Atlus and Arc System Works that just put out Persona 3 Arena to get it added in DLC... yeah, right.

 

[Jeff Strong]

That is absolutely brilliant.

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

I have no idea why anyone would want such a thing, but I was always the kid who got his arse handed to him at SF2 and the MK games, so I may be slightly biased...

 

[Squid]

I see. The virtual pugilists emerge.

@ Josh - Stellar idea! I'm not much of a video gamer but, as a Tekken player, I found the side games (bowling & volleyball) quite enjoyable.
Pinball Tekken? I could groove on that. (BTW - Your avatar reminds me of Ryu from Street Fighter)