Friday 13th: The Game License Expires This December, Will Be Delisted

Meh, good riddance. I was disappointed to discover this is an online-only game. Once the servers are turned off all progress will be wipped. You can technically do "quick play" offline, but you can't progress or level skills offline.

That's a shame, I kept meaning to play it but never got round to it so I now I don't have to bother.

That's unfortunate, never played Friday The 13th but i use to watch alot of the streams on Twitch.

Pity it was a fun if glithcy game at its height before all the licence issues derailed updates etc

Guess Jason was not as immortal as we all thought.

Put so many hours into this on the Switch. It was one of the best kick back and just have a blast games I've played in a long time. Especially on a day off and boozing. Unfortunately I had to part with it when the servers shut down. The peer to peer matchmaking made the online virtually unplayable. I have so many good memories of being Jason and a counselor. Win or lose it was still so much fun. R.I.P.

jason is finally dead let him rest in pieces...

That's what I hate about all online games. And it is one of the reasons why I don't play them.

@johnvboy Your profile picture being Michael Myers only makes this comment funnier.

People blame digital games and claim how physical media is superior, but the real problem here is how companies keep making the mistake of buying temporary licenses.

When a company buys a license to use characters or music they don't own, when the contract expires, they should be still allowed to sell the game, they just can't use the license in another game, that's how Hollywood movies work, Sony doesn't have the rights to Ghost Rider anymore, but they just can't make another movie, they can still sell DVDs of the Nicolas Cage movies.

Also, buying a physical copy of the game doesn't work here, because the game is 100% online.

Companies need to allow P2P servers, so players can play online between them without a middle man.

As much as I would prefer recent games based on horror franchises to be more than just another Dead By Daylight with the online-multiplayer focused format (my disappointment was immeasurable when I found out the recent Evil Dead game was exactly that), it is definitely a shame to see so my devs' hard work and players' progress just wiped away like that just because of some legal nonsense.

@OstianOwl,

Never considered that, my comment may be too funny now.

I’m not into online games but this was a blast to play. Love this game. Sad that the license is expiring for them to continue to sell but looking forward to their next game.

Meh the NES original is still the definitive version to play Friday the 13th.

The only thing that I have to say positively about the announcement is that it did stay up much longer then most online only games.

@silverdamascus Don't you think most people would already know about that? Licensing had always been a thing for gaming. Disney, WB, Fox, & Paramount done it many times to license their properties to many gaming companies.

And yes, license expiring can be a bane for many folks. But that's how it works and renewing can be costly.

@DanijoEX Movies are made with a license where even after it expires, movie studios can still sell DVDs of the movie that was already released, they just can't make another movie.

Why videogame companies don't make a similar contract?

Put over 300 hours into this during the pandemic, so sad to see. Easily one of my favorite Switch games.

@silverdamascus

A lot of it depends on who owns what, when the film contract comes to an end. Film studios often can't assign perpetual distribution licenses, because the underlying IP isn't theirs to license, in perpetuity.

Both/all parties also have to be amenable to such a contract, and the film studios that secure perpetual distribution rights for themselves tend to be equally shrewd when it comes to licensing perpetual distribution rights out to others.

There's also likely to be a substantial escalation added to the initial investment needed to acquire perpetual rights vs. time-limited rights, which may be overly cost-prohibitive for videogame developers and publishers.

@zbinks My point is that licensing contracts should allow perpetual distribution for works that were already released, the license expires, the company can still sell the games that were already released in their original format, they just can't make a brand new game.

Movies are often made with this in mind since reselling old movies is important for studios, nowadays, selling older games became more important for videogame companies, but they still make that mistake.

I bet that people are probably gonna make fan servers to keep the game going.

you can play offline against bots too. it is also fun too.

@silverdamascus , no you can play against bots offline and it is fun too

The least they could do is give us one last update so you could skip those atrocious looking cuts scenes. It's excruciating having to watch them everytime you wanna redo a stage. This is 2023 what game today doesn't allow skipping cut scenes?

Shame. Good fun this one.