How Videogames Help Fund the Arms Industry

FhnuZoag writes "Eurogamer has an expose of the shady world of games developers licensing guns. From the article: '"We must be paid a royalty fee — either a one-time payment or a percentage of sales, all negotiable. Typically, a licensee pays between 5 per cent to 10 per cent retail price for the agreement. [...] We want to know explicitly how the rifle is to be used, ensuring that we are shown in a positive light... Such as the 'good guys' using the rifle," says [Barett Rifles'] Vaughn.'"

Comments

Re:How about just not naming them real names?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why would you bother calling it by its real world name?

Just call it something else and don't pay.

Some do, and they put changes into the models used for the guns so they can't get them on design patents/trademarks, either. That's not even mentioning games where you just have the generic "Pistol", "Shotgun", "SMG", "Sniper Rifle", etc.

But, you're underestimating the potential profit margin to be had on gun nuts with an apparent fetish for realistic armaments but can't afford them. All they need to do is get over the initial investment of licensing, and those lunatics will buy anything with increasingly accurate representations of their precious, precious surrogate manhoods.