A quick recap of the new rolling stock built or introduced since Train Simulator started on lines within the game. Class 185 Desiro Class 195 Civity Class 331 Civity Class 345 Aventra Class 374 Velaro e320 Class 377/6 Electrostar Mk2 Class 385 AT200 Class 387 Electrostar Mk2 Class 397 Civity Class 700 Desiro City Class 707 Desiro City Class 710 Aventra Class 717 Desiro City Class 720 Aventra Class 745 Flirt Class 755 Flirt Class 777 Stadler Metro Class 800 AT300 IEP Class 802 AT300 IEP It's fair to say that there's some catching-up to do in order to make Train Simulator feel modern. Obviously licences are needed for certain designs/liveries or workarounds needed. But doing nothing will ensure the brand goes stale which seems like a perverse business model. Come on DTG inspire us. *With apologies to Suede.
Class 185 Desiro - Siemens - German Class 374 Velaro e320 (Eurostar) - Siemens - German Class 700 Desiro City - Siemens - German Class 707 Desiro City - Siemens - German Class 717 Desiro City - Siemens - German Class 195 Civity - CAF - Spain Class 331 Civity - CAF - Spain Class 397 Civity - CAF - Spain Class 345 Aventra - Bombardier - Canada Class 377/6 Electrostar Mk2 - Bombardier - Canada Class 387 Electrostar Mk2 - Bombardier - Canada Class 710 Aventra - Bombardier - Canada Class 720 Aventra - Bombardier - Canada Class 745 Flirt - Stadler Rail - Switzerland Class 755 Flirt - Stadler Rail - Switzerland Class 777 Stadler Metro - Stadler Rail - Switzerland Class 385 AT200 - Hitachi - Japan Class 800 AT300 IEP - Hitachi - Japan Class 802 AT300 IEP - Hitachi - Japan C'mon Siemens, CAF, Bombardier, Stadler and Hitachi...
Most of these listed are ugly plastic trains in my opinion but I would love the 185 and 700. The 717 and the Civity family would be nice too.
I personally think most of them on that list are too bland to be ugly. Love them, loath them or find them a bit meh, they're a part of the modern railway network. Us duffers may prefer ramping up the clag and struggling with antiquated braking systems. Younger rail enthusiasts love the new stuff, just as we did in our youth. So a potential target market for TS is lost because the game is stuck in the early part of this expiring decade.
Put it plainly. A potential market is lost because modern train companies don't want to give licenses to games which may feature their units doing things they don't want in videos on youtube...
Is that theory or something that's been going on? Surely it's only the livery that can be the issue? It would be interesting to see DTG's take on this. First and Virgin didn't seem to have an issue with agreeing licences. AP's approach of including a link to "realistic branding" seems to circumnavigate the issue as they've frequently released versions of current liveries. Copyright laws that apply to AP are the same as those that apply to DTG.
Could be that AP have the will and means to acquire licencing, possibly with exclusive rights. I'm not well up on current train operating companies and their liveries but it seems that many of APs liveries are of defunct operators. I stand to be corrected on this.
It's been said somewhere, and the outline of a product can also be copyright and require license, not just paint scheme, theme, logo etc. In other words if DTG wanted to produce a model of a class 700 they would need to have a license from the owner of all relevant copyrights, not just any relevant logos etc AP aren't producing new locos... They're either "enhancing" or making old ones (465, 150, 37 all of which are BREL units so outside of this). With regards to paint schemes they're either producing old ones, already licensed ones etc etc. I haven't seen a bang up to date livery from a payware source in a while
Clearly someone didn't agree with you. One of the perils of expressing an opinion in public I'm afraid.
They obviously disagreed. You've only got 12, but 276 upvotes so that's not bad at all, only 4% down. Mine's 6%
Wouldn't mind seeing the 195 on Train sim... since it has operations on several routes already in game; Liverpool-Manchester route being the one I shall use in this instance, 195's are getting to common that there replacing most of the 15x operations around aswell.
ISTR AP ran into issues with Virgin Group lawyers a couple of years back and got Cease and Desisted. Their 'workaround' is to make the trains without logos and release a 'free branding patch' in the hope it'll shield them as they are not directly selling content with the train companies logo. Also I suspect as a 'sole trader' they think that the lawyers won't think them worth bothering with as a potential payout would be less then the cost of pursuing. DTG being a larger limited company with a turnover of a few million per year would probably find themselves very quickly the target of legal action if they didn't do things above board.
I've been on the Shenfield to London Liverpool street the train I've been on the class 345 Aventra I've been in the Cab from shenfield to London Liverpool street