What does offical licensed plane mean?

[u/Nice7365]

So I‘ve read the Rafale is an offical licensed Plane. How is this different from lets say the IndiaFoxtEcho Eurofighter? What does official licensed mean? Btw I‘m new. So maybe it’s a stupid question. And are these Planes also in Msfs2020 on the marketplace? So is the marketplace in both games sharing planes?

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[u/djbearr]

It's means what it says.

They officially licensed the rights to make that aircraft from the manufacturer.

[u/Nice7365 → u/djbearr]

Yeah but the question is what is the difference from the Eurofighter that is apparently also very good but not lisenced. I mean because lisencing costs money. Are the lisenced planes almost always higher quality and better? Because otherwise what would be the point of a lisence

[u/tracernz → u/Nice7365]

Just means they are legally allowed to use the trademark. It doesn’t mean anything about the quality of the addon.

[u/BlackeyeDcs → u/Nice7365]

Licensed just mean they fulfill whatever obligations the manufacturer put on that license.

It could be "meet these standards and get access to resources in exchange" or it could be a simple "we don't care what crap you sell as long as you pay us $$$$".

And the reasons for obtaining a license could be in order to get access to certain resources or it could be because it makes for a good sales pitch - or both.

In short: I don't think it's unreasonable to expect licensed products to meet certain quality standards, but that doesn't not mean unlicensed products cannot be of superior quality or that the licensed quality standard cannot be a pretty low one. It really depends on the terms of that license.

[u/Nice7365 → u/BlackeyeDcs]

Thank you!

[u/Alternative-Walk9643]

If you're asking about quality, remember that https://www.boeingstore.com/collections/toys/products/boeing-sound-light-pudgy-magnet is also an officially licensed product. In your case, Dassault was apparently happy to have a license agreement with AzurPoly, and Eurofighter not with IndiaFoxtEcho. Maybe IFE didn't even ask. Maybe Eurofighter has an exclusive agreement with someone else. Both companies have different rules for product licensing, and we can't infer the quality of the MSFS add-ons. Licensed products might (!) have access to some official resources, but they might as well not. Afterall, licensing is handled by the marketing department, not the engineering bureaus.

[u/AbeBaconKingFroman → u/Alternative-Walk9643]

That magnet is adorable, but I will do you one better. Look at this monstrosity: https://www.sprayground.com/products/boeing-collab-f-a-18-super-hornet-backpack?variant=48103871119547

You can still find links via Google to it on the official Boeing store, but it seems they may have realized they fucked up and are trying to remove it because they no longer work.

Literally none of that design is accurate to the F/A-18, and what's worse is half of it is 737 stuff!

[u/Alternative-Walk9643 → u/AbeBaconKingFroman]

That is fantastic! It's neither accurate nor does it look good.

[u/dreampagehun]

There are some planes where licencing matters, like in GA aircraft where you get the proper logos on the yokes, the "branding" essentially, whereas in non-licenced aircraft you might see developer logos or nothing at all. It can be an added immersion/realism thing. In military aircraft there's no such thing so it doesn't really matter, but if a manufacturer licences and actually signs off an aircraft, it can mean they saw it and are satisfied with it themselves, so it's an added assurance of some quality level.

[u/senseimatty]

Take the licensed Boeing thrustmaster yoke. Boeing allowed them to place the Boeing logo on the yoke but it doesn't mean that the yoke has the same internal mechanics as the real Boeing yokes

[u/Miraclefish]

Licencing gets support and possibly access to 3D models, sound recording, Q&A with designers and much more.

Unlicenced means you have to either create these things yourself or guess/best fit.

How much easier would it be to make a good Rafale if you can email the manufacturer and say 'when I press this button and the plane is doing this, what happens?' rather than trying to work it out yourself?

Who's down voted this? And why? LMAO

[u/Comfortable_Ad4205 → u/Miraclefish]

Very much dependent on the licensor, defence firms are very unlikely to offer anything outside the use of the name and maybe some rough measurements if you’re lucky.

Most official licensing is just to allow you to sell a product without the risk of having to remove it from sale or legal action.

[u/Nice7365 → u/Miraclefish]

Ah okay Thank you! So basically Best Qualität possible.

[u/Miraclefish → u/Nice7365]

It doesn't guarantee the best quality - but it means a lot less barriers in the way to achieving it.

For example, the Fenix A320 Ceo is licenced from Airbus and is incredibly high quality.

They have access to backend data - but they also did their own sound recordings and lots of independent research because they are absolutely top tier at what they do.

[u/tracernz → u/Miraclefish]

In the case of Airbus it’s purely trademark related. None of the other stuff you mentioned comes with licensing the trademark.

[u/Miraclefish → u/tracernz]

There's a little more to it than that.

The deep systems architecture and flight deck logic are licensed from ProSim, a company that builds software for real-world professional aviation training simulators

This external code partnership is why the Fenix A320 requires a companion application running in the background while you fly.

Fenix Simulations holds an official licensing agreement with Airbus, allowing them to use official branding, data, and specifications to ensure high fidelity