Hello! So I noticed I've a TSW 6 compatible DLC for Peninsula Corridor - San Francisco to San Jose. But I don't see the add-on DLC i.e the Switcher and Baby Bullet? Are these not available in TSW 6 due to the license ending? I can't find them anywhere?
These will be released as the unbranded versions as confirmed here on the faq- Will the delisted Caltrain Content be compatible with Train Sim World 6? Within the first month after Train Sim World 6 launches, we’ll release unbranded versions of the following add-ons. If you already own the Caltrain-branded versions, you’ll be able to download the unbranded versions for free on the same platform and account. Peninsular Corridor: San Francisco – San Jose MP36PH-3C Baby Bullet MP15DC Diesel Switcher
I have to admit it doesn't make sense to me that people who paid for the branded DLC won't be able to use it going forward. I do understand why the DLC can't be sold any longer, but not the restrictions for use that people who paid good money for it are lumbered with. Caltrain got their cut when we paid for the DLC, and now they're preventing us from using it? Hopefully going forward DTG's licensing deals with third parties can ensure better protection for people who buy the product.
Well the license and branding is the property of the operators so they have full control over it and all dtg can do is respect it or it becomes a legal issue and that removes the partnership all together
Understood, but an agreement which denies puchasers the ability to use DLC that they've paid for shouldn't have been agreed to. If an operator (i.e. licensee) insists on unreasonable conditions then the licensor should just walk away. I suspect DTG have learned a lot in the intervening years and hopefully we won't see this nonsense again.
This ain't the first time this situation has played out this way and it definitely ain't going to be the last, it's all just part of the business game. People just have to except that nothing is forever any more........
The licensing issues is that of CalTrain, but the fact that DTG has come out with TSW6 is also part of why we don’t have a branded version. Also these licenses are not negotiated for perpetuity. I don’t know how it works do DTG, but for my line of work it’s only a few years with potential for certain opt-outs if certain conditions aren’t met by a certain time period (probably not relevant here). Can’t really box in a license forever. Also neither is denying us use of the DLC though. The last branded version is available on TSW5 and before and you can still use it on though versions. TSW6 still has it available, albeit unbranded, but still available to use. I do agree with you that hopefully this isn’t run into again, but in annual or really any updated game titles, when the license runs out, there is no way to avoid it. Happens in sports game franchises all the time.
DTG has had these issues in the past, when it was dealt with on TSC, though back then routes just got pulled off the steam store, but anyone who owned them can still download them, only difference is DTG or any 3rd parties effected wouldn't usually re release it unbranded to continue sales. (Or they would re release it as freeware, branded or unbranded as Ive seen from some US 3rd party routes) This is one area where DTG does have an upper hand with Caltrain and TSW6, especially with the Livery Editor, as DTG can easily unbrand the trains and resell it without too much effort.
Purchasers can use the content they've purchased with TSW 2020. 2. 3. 4. or 5 as much as they like. The problem is that with the expiry of the license, DTG is no longer allowed to distribute branded Caltrain content, and hasn't since last March. Distributing a TSW 6 version would be an infringement, and Caltrain could sue. Although agreeing to a term-of-years limit in a licensing agreement may well have been imprudent, I wouldn't call it "unreasonable;" sunset clauses certainly aren't unusual. It may very well be the case that all DTG's licenses have an expiration date; that was the case with Virgin and seems to have been the case with GWR (renegotiated just in time). But licensors are usually willing to grant extensions; Caltrain wasn't. Why? Who knows? My guess - it's only that - is that with its new EMU fleet Caltrain wants to bury its diesel past. It is after all a California outfit, so Green Cred is very important to them.
I have a big request for DTG: please give the community a gift and add suspension support to the rolling stock from the unbranded package. This will be some consolation for the loss of the brand.
considering the unbranded versions haven't been released yet, where did these screenshots come from? from the tsw5 branded version?
