Designing components and vehicles is very expensive and requires a lot of expertise.

Because of this, it is very common in the automotive industry to use other company’s designs.

And it’s very common to sell your designs to other companies.

The game implements three different ways to share designs between companies.

In this tutorial, we’ll cover the licensing system.

When you license components, you’ll receive the rights to produce another company’s design.

For each unit you produce, you will pay a royalty to the owner of the design.

Likewise, if you license out a design, you will grant the buyer a right to produce that unit. And for every unit they make, they will pay you a royalty.

The first thing we’ll cover is how to purchase a license to a design.

If you’re playing on easy difficulty, you must wait approximately 12 to 18 months before AI companies offer their designs for license.

Any game with the “Establish AI” setting enabled, such as normal difficulty level and harder, will pre-populate the licensing system.

To purchase a license, go to RnD Department.

Then click the “Outsource” button at the top.

Select what category of license you want.

This will open the Outsourcing, Licensing, and Platform Sharing window.

You will use this window for almost all interactions with third-party designs. So it will help to familiarize yourself with this window.

These three radio buttons allow you to switch between licensing, outsourcing, and Platform Sharing.

Right now, licensing is selected.

The buttons located here allow you to switch what type of design you’re interested in.

The Manage button allows you to control outsourcing contract orders. We cover this in more detail with the Outsourcing tutorial.

This panel allows you to filter the list of designs to the right.

We require you to click the apply button to change the non-drop-down requirements.

You can find a list of designs here. We’ll cover the color-coding shortly.

This panel is the license agreement panel. In this panel, you’ll either assign your designs for sale or purchase the designs of other companies.

Finally, at the bottom is the information panel. It allows you to view the specs and ratings of the selected design.

By default, we select your company for the list filter. When your company is selected, the game displays your designs in the list so you can license the designs to other companies.

If you want to purchase a license, you must change the selected company in the filter.

To see all available designs, select All Companies.

You are not currently licensing any designs in this list with red text.

You can narrow down the list using the filters in this panel.

Selecting a design from this list will fill the information panel at the bottom and pull up the licensing terms in this panel.

The Signing Fee is a one-time payment you’ll make to secure this license.

The Royalties is the amount you’ll pay for each unit produced.

If you agree with these terms, you need to select a marque from this drop-down to assign ownership. If it is empty, your main marque will assume ownership.

You can name the design here.

Finally, click the “Agree” button.

The design is now yours. You can use the design as you would any other design, including ending the production of it when you wish to stop using it.

Now let’s say you wanted to license your own designs out.

Opening the Outsource, License, Platform Sharing window, you must have your company selected in the company filter.

This is done by default when you open the window.

Any designs in the list that are green are unlicensed. You’re currently offering to license any red entries.

Select a design from the list.

In these two text boxes, you can adjust your signing bonus and royalty payout.

After entering your numbers, hit “Agree” and your design will be available for licensing.

At any time, you can adjust the payout amounts by changing the values and hitting “Agree” again. Or you can remove the design from licensing by clicking “Remove”.

Modifications to your licensing offer will not change any existing licenses with other companies.

The game does not allow you to deny any company a license, nor does it allow you to terminate a license.

If a company licenses a design, it will notify you in your Memos.

You can view existing licensed designs, units built, and revenues using the Licensing Revenues report. This report is under Revenues, then Licensing Revenues.

You can also find a breakdown of all license sales, past and present for components under the “Components” report in the Showroom.