Somewhat of a bittersweet story in the video game space today. If you’ve been following the PlayStation-exclusive Dreams, you will know that the developer, Media Molecule, announced it would be ending support for the creation sandbox on September 1. As such, according to a new blog post, the developers have updated the game’s terms of use policy allowing creators to take their Dreams content outside of the game and use them in any capacity, be it for personal or commercial use. However, not all creations will be allowed to leave the platform. Let me explain.
According to the developer’s guidelines, all original music, animation, films, and artwork by the creator may be used for personal and commercial purposes. As an example, commercial purpose may include using your creations on physical items like t-shirt print and posters, or sharing video or music creations on content-sharing sites that allow you to monetise the content, such as YouTube, Twitch, and the like.
In a nutshell, as long as the creations are original, you should be good to go. Furthermore, the user-created content should not infringe on any other intellectual material, including but not limited to; intellectual property rights, image rights or audio copyright belonging to any third parties. The latter also applies to official licenced music / audio for Dreams, though there is a bit of leeway for Media Molecule content such as, “Music Clips,” “Remix Parts,” “Mm Instruments,” and “Mm Sound Effects,” so it’s best to check out the full description, here.
Released in 2020, Dreams is a rather unique gaming experience in that the content featured within the game is created solely by its users. These can come in the form of interactive audio / visual experiences and traditional game content, which can then be shared by users on the platform to be played and then remixed or used in other creations.
The game received generally favourable reviews, and was praised for being incredibly creative and visually pleasing, but despite this, it failed to garner a large enough audience to keep above water. A shame, really, especially since the game still has a rather loyal fan base who paid good money for the experience. Alas, such is the nature of live-service content.
