Anyone want to speculate on a Zwift Olympics course actually happening?
There hasn’t been an update this month yet. The Specialized Roval Climbing Challenge starts on the 20th and the Aethos frame and Roval wheels are supposed to be in the drop shop before then. Unless these assets were already added in a previous update and are just waiting to be unlocked then we’d need a new update before Tuesday (20th Jul).
The Olympic road race is on next Saturday (24th Jul). If there is an Olympic Zwift course then we’d be getting it this week but we’ve heard absolutely nothing. No event announcements (the Makuri Island Olympic events were announced weeks in advance). No mystery promos. No Eric Min strava rides. The radio silence with only a week to go doesn’t look promising for a Zwift Olympic course does it?
I’m a bit surprised that we haven’t seen this yet. Only a couple of days ago and we still don’t have a Zwift course for Tokyo. I’m guessing there have been unforseen problems integrating it into the Makuri Islands area?
It’s not looking good for getting the course is it? Maybe the Japanese style world is all we’re getting after all. The Olympics are very fussy about their image rights, did we have any reason to believe Zwift would have license to tie up with the Olympics?
I didn’t think Zwift would get the Olympics licensing but then we had the Olympics Virtual Series on Zwift during June so there was obviously some sort of agreement with the IOC. A shame it didn’t extend to modeling the road course.
Not sure they need to license the climbs and routes of the course?
They didn’t license the Alpe or Ventoux, they should have incorporated parts of the route into the new world rather than the whole route.
They have currently missed the boat with the new world, it looks fantastic, but riding it leaves out the enjoyment and fun. The routes are pretty non-descript and there’s not a single part of it that stands out as challenging or rewarding.
I’m hoping there is more to come, otherwise 18 months to produce that is frankly a waste…
Olympics licensing restrictions are very onerous and very different to how it works for the Alpe or Ventoux, to be honest creating Makuri as a Japanese inspired world launched around about the time of the Olympics is probably about as close as you could get without getting into something that required official licensing. Especially since Zwift do have a relationship with the IOC I suspect they wouldn’t want to jeapordise this in any way by trying to implement an Olympics course in anything other than an official manner.
I think there is a longer term vision for Makuri, or is it Yumezi? It feels like the world will be expanded more and more like Watopia has, incorporating longer climbs and different biomes.
Mt Fuji is within striking distance and I’d expect the route soon enough.
Why isn’t there yet? 2020 Olympic Licensing? Not finished yet? Road Map?
Hopefully we get 2 or 3 new road deployments before January.
France & maybe Watopia needs some more roads too.
Yeah, no copyright or any other applicable intellectual property to the road itself. The only thing you can’t use is the O word (and the rings and what else), which might make it commercially uninteresting.
Yes I suspect it would end up as such a generic looking piece of road with a similar profile to the Olympics course that it would be pretty uninteresting. Expect Zwift will be particularly conservative given they have an official relationship for other stuff they wouldn’t want to spoil.
Clearly RGT are being less conservative but
Wouldn’t surprise me if they get a lawyers letter for their efforts…
I think the RGT events are community events and I suppose “inspired by…” is still pretty mild, it’s not like selling the wrong brand of soft drink near the event venue or anything. Plus the laws are different in different jurisdictions, it’s mainly recent and future host nations where the laws regarding the O word and other symbols are most onerous.
Unless I’m missing something, RGT is literally just the Fuji speedway track layout set in a field with some generic trees and buildings alongside it. I assume it’s utilising their Magic Roads feature, where any course can be recreated and the scenery is automatically generated. It’s presumably the correct elevation etc but to imply it’s any sort of Olympic Games replica is something of an exaggeration. There’s no chance they’d get into any bother for it.
If you’re bored enough to look at the guidance (I have before for other stuff), the use of names or implying association with the games in any way is copyright breach 101, so assuming they haven’t paid for it, they shouldn’t be doing it. Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics - Athletes, Medals & Results