Quoted from iamabearsfan:Speaking of that, why can they have a picture of a character, but not use their voice. This licensing stuff is over the top silly. I am really, really, tired of lawyers.
The sad thing is it's even dumber than people realize when you see it all from the inside, I learned that first hand. You can use this, but not that, and you can do it this way, but not that way, and you're told one thing from one person, but then you're dealing with approval with someone else and the rules have utterly changed on you.
Or you think "I have the movie rights, so I get all this stuff", but then the music is actually from a different sub company than the film, and was licensed to the movie, probably in some scheme to make profits look lower and avoid paying out percentages, and you need another $50k for this, and another person to approve that, and it's just a web of BS.
You can use this actor, but not this one, because the second actor is British, and has a totally different contract.
I suspect though that the things I learned with Alien are even crazier with modern films like POTC, because on the these old movies the contracts weren't written with all the modern digital media and licensing in mind. No way something like a huge budget Disney franchise isn't loaded with all kinds of detailed legal language for this that and the third. You can use this specific likeness, but not the person in motion, or whatever.
Personally I think NOT having a ton of film clips and re-used movie lines is great. I'm sure the JJP team chafed at restrictions, who wouldn't, but it means they got creative and did their own thing, instead of just playing back pre-canned stuff.
It's time these LCD games figure out their own footing, beyond being glorified DVD players. DI was a huge step in that direction, I imagine lessons learned there were a big help with POTC. JJP definitely has the edge on this stuff now in my mind.
I'll take 1200 custom callouts over a bunch of movie lines I've heard before any day. I'm not a POTC buyer, too expensive for me, but I feel like we should be defending custom work over recycled work wherever we can. Watch the movies if you want to hear the lines, let the game be original and new.