Today, Capcom has announced a “cross-licensing agreement” with competitor Bandai Namco, which has everything to do with “online matching” (read: netcode and online matchmaking) for games like Street Fighter. Per a press release, this agreement has been initiated so both companies can improve their respective user experiences, reduce development costs, and expedite production times for various titles. Capcom plans to use the “cross license” for online matching to “effectively utilize” patents the company owns, to “deliver even more exciting content to game players.”
Capcom’s message supports a “healthier game industry.” The company wishes to use this new deal as a launchpad of sorts to explore further opportunities of this nature, potentially to work with other developers as well without endangering the protections of its patents and intellectual properties.
This is crazy, right? Considering all the trouble companies can have with IP licensing and emerging concepts such as cross-platform play, seeing two Japanese developers come out of nowhere with agreements to share tech powering online play is unheard of. That said, as costly and complicated as fighting game development can be, this sort of thing can absolutely be a boon to game development across the board.
Source: Capcom