Formula One Deletes Hundreds Of Mods Over Rights Issues

In yet another example of the age-old struggle against The Man, the corporation representing Formula One racing has forced a popular modding forum to delete hundreds of mods. The mods were meant to modify Automobilista, F1 2013 and F1 2014 — all PC games that use the official F1 license. It seems that license comes with some regulations….the type F1 VERY strictly enforces.

For example, the F1 series is an annual release, and since it can’t predict what will happen in time, it uses fictitious liveries for some teams. The mods change that so the liveries match what’s being used in reality. Mods also frequently update the cars from past years to match what they currently look like, which threatens to make F1’s annual releases redundant. This, of course, changes none of the graphical updates or new modes a new F1 release might have….there’s plenty of reasons to keep buying the series if you’re into that sort of thing.

One thing’s for certain…..if F1 makes a habit of this, sales of F1-licensed games will plummet as people flock to the dozens of other racing games out there that DO allow mods. That will result in less game companies having interest in buying the F1 license, which means less money for F1. It all comes around eventually….