It looked like a little piece of bad news that would have hit true into the hearts of Sonic fans. According to a recent tweet by the esteemed leaker HYPEX, the intention to subsequently introduce Sonic’s legendary anthem, ‘Live & Learn,’ into Fortnite as a Jam Track had been felled by a huge, spiky obstacle; and, of course, now the gaming world’s biggest villain has to be copyright law.
Essentially, it is stuck in the legal tug-of-war. HYPEX sourced the information right from the artist himself: Johnny Gioeli, the famed vocalist from Crush 40 who sang the track. Obviously, just about 2 weeks ago, Epic had just been negotiating with Johnny and SEGA to try and make it happen, but it now seems that those talks have come to a halt “because there is basically a rights battle between me and SEGA over that song,” Johnny described. So, for now, those splendid vocals will not be accompanying any fortress building. Not anytime soon, sorry.
Reaction online, as always, was absolutely painful. The entire player base was in twos. TetoTheHedgehog stated with all the pain in the heart, “Can we at least get A SONG💔,” reflecting the sentiments of every single person excited for this. Poyopuyo64 lamented, “its so over…. the copyright laws finally stopped him :((.” There comes the corporate red tape that has squashed many really cool ideas that everyone agreed upon.
And then questions started flying. Since ‘Live & Learn’ is stuck in limbo, how about the other much-loved Sonic track everybody is rampantly chiming for? The straightforward question from tired_cosmo, “any info on ‘Escape From The City’?” was almost instantly echoed by HeyLookItsFNaFb and Sorasnobody responding with the GIF: “But City Escape?” It makes one wonder if this is just a roadblock on the track for ‘Live & Learn’ or something that kind of hinder the entire prospect of getting any classic Crush 40 songs in-universe. Ouch! The silence is really deafening over there.
The situation itself spawned wider discussions about how SEGA has been handling its IPs. Fox_Warrior804 yelled “Sega WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO FANS?!!” True, he does have a point. But BaronOfZLand contributed theirs from a less angry standpoint, stating how these will get complicated, especially with regard to how most traditionally protective Nintendo is about its own properties. It’s not really that they’ve dropped the ball if the deal never went further than talks, though it sure does seem like a lost opportunity.
Elsewhere into the conversation went the selling of the tracks as well. Some feared they would be put behind the Festival Pass. MasterPlaysDE theorized instead that they would just land in the Item Shop, which Kopa_Lopa complained about, having been geared up to get those Jam Tracks. Oh dear, the plague of people worrying about how content should be delivered.
And then, uh, gets us into some of the stranger reactions. InfinityGlock99 argued the whole idea of having Sonic in the game should just be deleted, which is a bit much. Meanwhile, __AvaTara__ gave a rant about how Fortnite is “not for children” and so shouldn’t include “cute comic book characters,” which twists the perspective right out of a serious discussion on a Sonic song. Wait, what was I saying? Oh right, the music.
What a shamewhen you think about it, because in the pre-game lobby, your character would load up a guitar and the opening chords of ‘Live & Learn’ would crack the speakers. That is magic that Fortnite does so well creating. For now, though, this dream has to remain miles away. The legal system would take it slow, and stretching music rights is pretty messy. The case got dismissed, so user ALegendarySol says, but it feels like it all left everything in a weird limbo with nobody very well able to make any decision.
Where does it leave us then? Stuck in that limbo, waiting. Demand is there. The collab was/is definitely being considered. But the song that has seen the most hype about the blue blur remains away from the battle bus until Sega and Johnny Gioeli can work out who’s about what. Each of those moments follows the sad generation that for every bright idea skin or emote that ever makes it through to the game, there are probably ten other entertaining ideas that are lost forever down that tangled maze of contracts and lawyers. For now, it is up to players to keep on hoping that the two sides can turn that legal loopy-loop into a pretty good pace to get the track where it belongs. Maybe they need a little more time to Live and Learn, ya know? The situation is a reminder of the complex rights issues that can affect games on platforms like PlayStation and Xbox as well.
