What does the Jason license actually include?
So, ever since the Early Access sneak peak, people have noticed the lack of basically anything movie related in the anniversary chapter.
No Camp Crystal Lake, no Tommy Jarvis, not even a mention of the general area in his lore.
BHVR seemingly has to dance on eggshells to avoid even a whiff of a mention of anything movie related so they don't get sued.
But here is the thing, Jason Universe owns all of the first 8 movies. And it seems like the collab is with them, so the question is:
What did BHVR actually get a license for? Only the likeness of Jason? Or is there a different roadblock restricting what can be used?
Edit: I need to search up who owns what with this franchise and all of you DBD players should too.
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Nobody except Horror Inc. knows the full extend of what they can and cannot use, however what we do know is this.
- Horror Inc. (originally founded by Sean Cunningham and has been run by the Barsamian family) has the rights for all the movies from part 2 to part 8 and their content, as well as the international rights for part 1. They also have the rights to the adult Jason character & F13: The Game itself.
- Victor Miller owns the US rights to part 1, thanks to the US Copyright Act of 1976.
The two above joined together to form Jason Universe, which is the copyright bhvr has licensed to get Jason into DBD.
- Meanwhile, Paramount owns the distribution rights to all the Friday movies from part 1 to 8.
- While Warner Bros through New Line (which they have a long time ago turned into one of WB's movie studio subsidiaries) owns all the Friday movies after part 8. They also owns the trademark for the Friday the 13th brand name itself, and they also own the trademark for the full name of Jason Voorhees, at least in marketing and branding.
Here's the thing however, Jason Universe basically exist solely just for Horror Inc. to circumvent Warner Bro's copyright of the F13 franchise, to avoid paying them royalties. And since Horror Inc. owns F13: The Game, they're working together with GUN Interactive to use all the content inside the game to work around WB's copyrighted version of Jason, so that Horror Inc. can use them for things like merchandise.
What Jason Universe is doing related to DBD and crossover however, is that they're essentially rebooting the Friday franchise and Jason as a whole, with Greg Nicotero's Jason design being the default design of the character from now on.
Which means nothing directly and explicitly from the original Friday movies can be used or mentioned directly. That's why there's basically nothing from the movies in DBD or any other games that are licensing from Jason Universe, because there basically is nothing to work off on with this version of Jason, as he has no lore.
Once projects like the Crystal Lake prequel series airs, then this version of Jason will get new lore connected to him.
As for cosmetics, the closest we'll get as of currently, are original cosmetics. Whether they're inspired by the existing movie designs or not doesn't matter.
Also despite all the add-ons being obvious references to events that has happened in the original movies, all of the descriptions are written in a vague and indirect way.
TL;DR: Everything from part 1 to part 8 is within the rights of what Jason Universe can use, however because JU is focusing on rebooting the franchise, it means neither bhvr or anyone else that collabs with Jason Universe are allowed to use any existing movie content whatsoever.
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Every single one of Jason's add-ons is a reference to a kill or character from the movies, it's much more implicitly referential than a character like Springtrap getting table scraps and aesthetic pieces from his source material for add-ons.
As for the skins, the devs clearly did base a fair amount of them in Jason's movie history, even if the skins are original designs.
Backwoods Terror is 90% original but gives Jason hair as seen in Friday Part 2, just this time with the Hockey mask instead of baghead.
Depths of Despair is pretty close to his Part 7 design, just leaning less into Gore and more into Jason being taken over by nature.
Death Forsaken blends his FvJ coat with part 7's exposed spinal column and 6's gloves.
It's not literally recreated from the films like F13 the game, but that was always going to be a losing battle wasn't it? It makes sense DBD went moreso the route did Mortal Kombat X did and nabbed Jason on his own.
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Thanks for the thourough explanation.
I myself also looked into the legal claims and found out that JU wants to avoid more lawuits, so they don't use the first 8 movies.
Kind of a shame but what can you do.
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I started to wonder if it would be possible to get a license to use Savini Jason.
It's a skin created for the FT13 game specifically, so maybe it could come into the game as a cosmetic?
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At least they sprinkled in callbacks to his various kills and other film references in his add-ons and used similar music stings and cues. I'm personally a little 'meh' on them not referencing his actual lore or including direct implementations of his various looks. I'm less excited about playing a killer named Jason who wears a hockey mask if it isn't actually Jason Voorhees.
It's like an officially licensed knock-off - kind of neat but also kind of 'meh'.
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They should in theory own the rights to the design since it was commissioned for a Horror Inc release and isn't tied to a film distributed/created by Warner Bros or Paramount.
Assuming alterations would be made to resemble the Jason Universe Design, a Hellish Jason skin seems very in the cards, though I dunno how well a pitchfork would work with his current M1 animations. Might lead to a Michael situation where he stabs you with a pipe.
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