It's all gaming history and a sadly-overlooked part of "Stop Killing Games".

The worst part is the licenses that do exist are non-transferrable, so by the end of this century there will be zero licenses left for these games. They'll just be expunged until they become public domain perhaps in the middle of the next century - if any copies survive.

And what's sad about that is we know for a fact games can survive and be enjoyed for decades, because we have seen this occur for the entire lineage of game-playing machines.

Same reason why Ace combat will never get a remake.

If you use real brands in your videogame you as a developer need to know that it's on a death clock.

Or just sign a licensing deal that doesn’t expire?

That presumes you can find someone to agree to those terms (which you won't), and if they do, that it isn't a prohibitively expensive fee (which it would be).

Why wouldn't they?

The license should be to use the likeness for a given purpose. Either make it perpetual or per copy, not per time. Product breaking licenses should not be allowed in most situations.

No licensor is going to do that.

I just wonder why movies get away with licenses for both music and depicting cars etc. for eternity. Seems like they just added weird unnecessary rules for video games. I also imagine a situation where Stephen King has to renew with Plymouth every few years. Seems ridiculous for any other art form why is it so easily accepted for this one?

There are only 1,038 delisted games out of 100,000+ games on Steam, so there are willing licensors. Some may offer perpetual licenses, but want a royalty. It might be easier to delist a game than to manage the ongoing paperwork.

Most games don't have that sort of licensed content to start with, so comparing to the total population of games isn't meaningful.

Offering a perpetual license would limit the licensor's options (e.g. they could never offer someone else an exclusive license, nor could they adjust the rates if the brand becomes more popular, nor could they terminate if the developer/publisher becomes toxic), so I guess while it's theoretically possible I just don't see why they'd want to offer such a license.

It is meaningful if the claim that perpetual licenses don't exist. They do. The terminology is often mocked, but comes in handy in case like this: "in perpetuity, throughout the universe".

I despise that licensing is a thing in video games. They're an art form and you should be able to depict whatever you want. I don't care if Porsche, John Deere or Sig Sauer get their feelings hurt because someone made art.

This is a thing dreamed up by IP lawyers to justify their own employment. Brands do far more damage to themselves by suing small companies than they could ever take from being represented in a work of art, even negatively.

It was always unpopular to be seen as a manipulator, the control freak who "manages" their image with punitive measures. But it has probably never been as unpopular as it is right now. John Deere would be more popular from tossing their brand management lawyers from the fifth floor than they would from listening to them.

The ONLY time a big brand has anything to complain about, is when they are said to have endorsed something they didn't.

I was under the impression that most gameplay scenarios are positive exposure for real-world brands. The kid who spends 500 hours of his childhood driving around specific cars in games is developing brand preferences before he ever steps foot in a dealership.

A smart brand would be eager to undercut their competitors for licensing-- even to the point of giving them away free, assuming the negotiate positive brand exposure.

I definitely agree with you but lawyers don't do common sense.

I'm sure perp licences are more expensive, also nobody should be forbidden from using brands for artistic purposes. If a company licences the color "red" for their branding and it henceforth requires licencing for use they can shove that idea up their rear

By that logic you should be charged licensing fees to post a product review online

#+ BEGIN_ART

Here's my John Deere™ tractor:

   _____
   |o  |   !
   |:`_|---'-.
   '_'.-JD--.|
  '._.'     (-)

It's a heap of shit, overpriced and unrepairable. It smells like farts, but does have a sweet green paintjob.

#+ END_ART

Should I have asked the corpos for a license before exhibiting my art?

Do all of these still work?

Is Steam obligated to continue to support old games until they no longer exist to support them, or can they stop supporting them at any time?

Depends on what you mean by "still work". If you bought them, you can download and play them. If you mean "Do they work on modern OS", it depends entirely on the game. You also have games that are still being sold but don't properly work on modern OSes without community patches (one example is Max Payne 1).

If you are asking if I can still download and play them?

Then the answer is yes.

Rereleased GTA games have a lot of iconic music removed from their radio soundtracks due to expired licenses.

At least for the PC versions of Vice City and San Andreas, the originals are missing the music too. A bunch of licenses expired 10 years after release and the Steam releases got updated accordingly.

It doesn't feel the same playing GTA4 without the music.