I was thinking to myself... let's imagine that DB (deutsche bahn) decided to revoke the license for tsw's content, can you imagine? yes, it would basically evaporate with the content of tsw, for existing content the licensing agreements should have clauses where the agreement once signed cannot be revoked (e.g.: caltrain) or changed (e.g.: LWNR) that is, for content that ALREADY HAS A SIGNED AGREEMENT, the license must have a perpetual duration, that is, new contracts, new clauses see that in both examples (caltrain and LNWR) the contracts were already signed and were suddenly modified and/or revoked in other words, we depend on the goodwill of rail operators I wanted to know what you think about
The LNWR license issue was likely because of the leak. Seems too coincidental that they revoked it at the same time. I presume there was some sort of clause that automatically revoked the license if the details were made public unofficially. As for the Caltrain one, it just naturally expired, there's nothing to suggest otherwise.. Can and does happen. Presumably they just want to get on with running their trains than messing about licensing their products for a game.
Its worth noting that licenses do expire overtime, though this in the video game industry, is usually for licensed cars or soundtracks in games. (Why some games do get removed from digital storefronts) Obviously railroads and railways are different, but none of us can really predict what deals DTG has with them, not to mention the ever changing landscape of the real world, will see brands either disappear, merge, or change their focus on their branding.
it's rare for a company to have a non-expiring lease. VERY rare. While it makes sense to you from a TSW DLC perspective, it's not a great deal for the other side. There is always an "out" in case something happens, and often an expiration date. That's normal. What you describe is not normal in business. It sounds like a terrible deal for the railway with no up side.
Hopefully the DB licence is fairly robust, given nearly a third of total TSW content relies upon it! The most important thing for DTG, which is obviously where they fell down with Caltrain, is that licence expiry means they can carry on selling products made during the licence periodicity just not release anything new.
