Rejoice: EA Games' Exclusive Porsche Deal Is About To Die

The absence of the Porsche brand in some of the world’s major racing titles has to be one of the biggest annoyances in modern gaming.

The issue stems from an exclusive deal between EA Games and Porsche, which has meant that - other than the odd Forza DLC pack - the brand’s car’s have been stuck in the rather unrealistic world of Need for Speed. Not ideal, given that the company has a habit of building the world’s best sports cars. Happily though, it looks like this deal is finally going to end.

Various Porsches made a very welcome appearance in sim racer Assetto Corsa (above) this year, and when speaking to Porsche Branded Entertainment Manager Sebastian Hornung, German site Speed Maniacs wanted to find out how that was possible (translation by GT Planet):

“According to Sebastian they were also always following what was going on in the gaming industry aside from EA. The license with EA runs out this year, because together they arrived at the realisation that the current situation was not desirable anymore.”

Assetto Corsa’s relationship with the car company has been further strengthened by the use of the ‘Pro’ version of the game in various Porsche Experience centres, but we will be seeing the brand popping up in many more franchises. A few of Stuttgart’s sports cars will be appearing in the next Project Cars instalment, and should be arriving in Forza Horizon 3. Will there be Porsches in Gran Turismo Sport? It certainly seems likely.

2017 should be an exciting year for racing games…