Request to change the SCEE and FOA exclusive rights contract

Formula One Administration (FOA) has granted Sony Computer Entertaniment Europe (SCEE) exclusive rights so that the Formula One (F1) franchise will be exclusive to SCEE and Sony Playstation 2 for the next 4 years, or until 2007. Because of agreement between FOA and SCEE F1 titles by developers such as Geoff Crammond (Grand Prix Series) and EA Sports (EA Sports F1 Series) are no longer being created. The issue at hand is that SCEE only publishes titles for Sony made consoles, like the Sony Playstation 2, but nothing else. Therefore until the year 2007, if this agreement holds up, there will be no F1 racing games on the Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo GameBoy Advance, Microsoft X-Box or PC. I think from a Formula 1 marketing and a racing simulation community point of view that this 4 year exclusive agreement was a really poor decision and needs to be re-considered. I think a compromise should be made by SCEE since they are only going to make F1 games for the Sony Playstation 2 and future Sony video gaming consoles. If SCEE wishes to have exclusive rights to Formula 1 titles it should be only for the Sony Consoles which they are making their titles for and it should not effect any consoles that they do not market their products towards. This would allow companies such as Microprose and EA Sports to continue their respective Formula 1 series but only on non-Sony platforms.

Another reason I am fighting for this change, with this decision lots of members in the the simulation racing community are disapointed that until 2007, or a compromise is made by SCEE, there will be no Formula 1 titles for PC, which is the home of the simulation racer. Another reason I am fighting for this change is because for Nintendo GameBoy Advance there is currently a revolutionary Formula 1 title (Prograph Research's GP Advance, the first GBA racing game featuring a brand new full 3D graphics engine with output compariable to a Sony PSOne; http://www.prograph.it/gpadvance/gpadvance.htm) sitting on the shelves waiting for a publisher to pick it up and distrubute the game around the world. The reason this game is not geting picked up is because all potential publishers know they will not beable to get the offical FOA licencing for this title.

We the undersigned support the idea that SCEE should re-negotiate it's exclusive rights contract with the FOA so atleast Formula 1 video games can be made for platforms that the SCEE will not be marketing their Formula 1 titles for.