Cricket Games And Licensing

[ryandobermann]

Hi ...
I've actually thought about this for a while but why is so hard to get Licensing from real cricket games these days ???

I remember in Brian Lara 99 Codemasters that the Licenses and then EA also had the Licenses and real names / teams ...

What happened ?

All sport games I know of has licenses and I'm really surprised to see a major sport like cricket lacking licences these days ... I mean they had them from 1999 and in a lot of EA games but what happened after that ?

 

[asprin]

1. Cricket is not a major sport. It is hardly played by 15-20 countries of the world.
2. Licensing cost a bomb. Since cricket games are a niche market, it would be a very big risk to invest a major chunk of the budget for just real names.

 

[Paree]

1. Cricket is not a major sport. It is hardly played by 15-20 countries of the world.
2. Licensing cost a bomb. Since cricket games are a niche market, it would be a very big risk to invest a major chunk of the budget for just real names.

its the third most watched sport in the world

 

[asprin]

I seriously doubt that. Any official figures to back that up?

 

[MattW]

I remember in Brian Lara 99 Codemasters that the Licenses and then EA also had the Licenses and real names / teams ...

When you load up Brian Lara Cricket 99 the copyright screen notes that the game isn't endorsed by any player/board/organisation other than Brian Lara (or Shane Warne, depending on version).

Likewise, EA Cricket 2002/04 only had official licenses for Australia, England, South Africa and New Zealand - the same as Cricket 05/07.

So, I don't believe either games actually had all the relevant licenses for all the countries that they included - and I'm not sure of the circumstances that would have led them to have been included in the older games.

 

[Pat]

I was just thinking about this the other day. How DBC14 has managed to get around the licensing issues by using a in-game editor with shareable content. Honestly, there has to be some legal ramifications to this. If this were to be allowed, it would make getting actual licenses (for other sports games) almost redundant. Why would anyone pay money for licenses, if you can have a similar system in your game where gamers can get licensed teams/players/likeness by just downloading content with a single click of a button.

 

[ryandobermann]

1. Cricket is not a major sport. It is hardly played by 15-20 countries of the world.

Cricket is not a major sport ???

Ok apart from Football ( Soccer ) the biggest sport in the world ...

Name me 5 sports more major/popular then Cricket ...

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When you load up Brian Lara Cricket 99 the copyright screen notes that the game isn't endorsed by any player/board/organisation other than Brian Lara (or Shane Warne, depending on version).

Likewise, EA Cricket 2002/04 only had official licenses for Australia, England, South Africa and New Zealand - the same as Cricket 05/07.

So, I don't believe either games actually had all the relevant licenses for all the countries that they included - and I'm not sure of the circumstances that would have led them to have been included in the older games.

Umm but in Brian Lara 99 all the players had the real names ... And Commentary used the real names from far as I can remember ...

Same as EA games .... I remember in EA 2004 they had the domestic teams for eng / aus ... the international A teams ... There was so many players ...

56 Teams: Including domestic sides from Australia, England, South Africa, New Zealand and the West Indies , 75 modelled stadiums and 1200 players ...Full licenses from the PCB, ECB, NZ Cricket and the South African Cricket team.

I had so much fun with it ... In season mode I remember for season tour I'd have to select the players for the squad and there was so many players for each team , all the domestic players would be linked too ... It was hectic .

EA 2005 Similar adding domestic teams even from new zealand ...

EA Sports lost the licensing for most of the teams for Cricket 07. Only Australia, England, South Africa and New Zealand licensed player names and kits. All other team names are generic, however can be edited in the Team Management option or with a roster.

And after EA stopped well the licenses disappeared ...

 

[MattW]

Umm but in Brian Lara 99 all the players had the real names ... And Commentary used the real names from far as I can remember ...

It had the names, but as far as I could tell it didn't actually have the licenses for them. Neither did EA - which is why you had fake logos or national flags for most teams - and the official team logos for only a few in the EA games and none in BLC99.

I'm not sure of the circumstances - maybe @Chief might have an idea what was going on back then.

 

[grkrama]

I was just thinking about this the other day. How DBC14 has managed to get around the licensing issues by using a in-game editor with shareable content. Honestly, there has to be some legal ramifications to this. If this were to be allowed, it would make getting actual licenses (for other sports games) almost redundant. Why would anyone pay money for licenses, if you can have a similar system in your game where gamers can get licensed teams/players/likeness by just downloading content with a single click of a button.

Technically BA are not making the teams only providing tools and hosting, so who ever is uploading is the one at fault, they have a report button too implemented on their part to back it.Bit like youtube dont think much can be done about it.

And i dont see people suing BA ove this unless chunnster sues some big franchise like PES tries to get away with it and the money mongers swoop down.

Even whatever little hosting problems they have can be resolved by making it peer to peer if it comes to that.

 

[Villain]

It had the names, but as far as I could tell it didn't actually have the licenses for them. Neither did EA - which is why you had fake logos or national flags for most teams - and the official team logos for only a few in the EA games and none in BLC99.

I'm not sure of the circumstances - maybe @Chief might have an idea what was going on back then.

Brian Lara International Cricket 2007 has a completely licensed ICC Champions Trophy 2007, including real logos/player faces/names and stadiums. AFAIK, it's the only cricket game having licenses of the subcontinent teams.

 

[Pat]

And i dont see people suing BA ove this unless chunnster sues some big franchise like PES tries to get away with it and the money mongers swoop down.

Yes, that was exactly my point. What if FIFA and PES decided to follow this model and stop paying for licenses. I am pretty sure there will be a lot of unhappy people if that happened.

 

[lion100lion]

All sport games I know of has licenses and I'm really surprised to see a major sport like cricket lacking licences these days

Do you need to invest on licence these days, when you have the cricket academy ?
Clearly, Cricket Academy has made mockery of the licence.

 

[Paree]

I seriously doubt that. Any official figures to back that up?

Here are some sites data
Infact it shows its second most in some websites

Top 10 Most Popular Sports in The World sporteology
Top 10 Most Loved Sports in the World - List Dose
10 Most Watched Sports and Their Greatest Moments - Listverse

 

[MattW]

AFAIK, it's the only cricket game having licenses of the subcontinent teams.

All the other games that licensed the ICC tournaments had them - so EA Cricket World Cup 99, EA Cricket 2000, Brian Lara International Cricket 2005 and 2007 as well as Cricket Power.

Yes, that was exactly my point. What if FIFA and PES decided to follow this model and stop paying for licenses. I am pretty sure there will be a lot of unhappy people if that happened.

The licenses still offer an advantage in the market - EA can re-release FIFA 14 with slightly different teams and less game modes because they can call it the World Cup game.

There's also people who care about total accuracy including branded equipment and exact kits, there's a lot more to it than the names alone.

 

[Ohm]

First - License isn't a thing which allows a gamer maker to use only real names. Players' likeness(faces, style, body language), official logos are permitted to use along with real names and possibly the product title under the professional license from an International organization.

I'm not much in the sport games except most of the Cricket series and some of the FIFA & PES products. As you see FIFA is an officially licensed production series developed by EA under the agreement with 'F?d?ration Internationale de Football Association'. But it allows the basic things just as players' likeness, official FIFA logo, series title and players' real names. All the official logos of the leagues and teams in leagues and their licenses are taken from respective league councils or club boards. All the official stadiums are licensed under the respective club boards and/or owners. So licensing a game is a big and long lasting process.

As mentioned before, Brian Lara Cricket 2007 includes fully licensed tournament. It done only by ICC's agreement(not from all respective boards) as the particular competition was administrated by ICC. You can't enjoy the career mode, custom tournaments with that license benefits similarly as in PES series and unlikely the FIFA series.

As in EA Cricket 07, you may(must) have noticed that just 4 International teams and two domestic leagues are licensed. Those are done under the respective national cricket boards' agreement. So, its a partially licensed game which makes you enjoy it through very few domestic teams, International teams and domestic leagues/tournaments.