Bring back orginal gas stations

[xXCARL1992Xx]

the sad part is they dont care, they will still think they are in the right even though in this case their opinion is irrelevant, if it comes to potential legal repercussions or satisfying the customer, the customer has always the backseat, doesnt mater how big the company is

[JoeAlex23]

Thank you for saying something on this thread @SCS_Annie, sadly, as Carl said, some people on this thread will not care about any of that and will still think they are right and you're wrong, but as you said "like 'em or hate 'em", the new gas stations are here to stay, period.

[AgMech]

It is really irrelevant to argue over legality issues that are beyond the player base. If we wait long enough, some talented modder will fill in the gap with what the player base wants. I usually use mods to fill in for gaps in the base game. I never use the vanilla format, in almost all sims that I play ... Too unrealistic. I can see a lot of sights, first or third person, through the windshield or outside, and the fake vanilla stuff is a turnoff. I want immersion in the game. There are sims out there that provide a great base starting point. Mods add Icing on the Cake ... There are some talented modders out there that can provide us with what we want.

[peno]

Afaik he company had roughly ~50-100 employees back then or possibly even fewer (that divided into many many departments. The asset teams were TINY). We are still a relatively small company and we used to be even smaller. Matters such as the issue of branding just weren't the priority.

I don't care much about the gas station change. And if it helped avoiding legal battle for SCS, then, even better for me. But there is one flaw in your argument and that is that even before ATS was released, SCS already faced problems with one of the big truck makers in Europe, which, allegedly, even influenced their possibility to license that brand's trucks. That was SCS' reasoning as to why ATS only used licensed trucks and not fake brands trucks like ETS2 did.
So, with this said, I am actually surprised SCS weren't much more careful when creating brands for ATS and still used such an obvious knock-offs that could expose them to a possible legal issues. One would really expect that after that experience, SCS would be much more careful with branding for future titles, but no. They obviously didn't learn and repeated their mistakes. This is definitely a thing I don't understand here.

[Underscore_101_]

To OP, would just like to mention that I don't agree

Many people have already explained about legal things, but besides those, I simply have no issues with them being fake, or not from real life.
In fact I rather like the new designs, in general the designers of such things have really stepped up lately and logos and advertising and stuff like that look way better than they did before.

I've never been to the USA, so other than the few big ones I have no clue what is realistic and what isn't, but I have been to Europe, actually I live there, and we have maybe hundreds if not more fuel companies,
How many of them do you think i know from the top of my head,... .. well here's the list i know, Shell, Texaco, BP, now i need some really hard thinking of the one I always go to,... still thinking,.. Total, so 4, can't even think of the local one i drive past 4 times a day, there probably are a few more i can think of when i do my best, like Aral, Esso, but in total that's nothing compared to how many there are.

Do you know every fuel company in the USA, not just by name, but from recognizing them on your daily commute?

[55sixxx]

I was skeptical at first but after some good use of the new gas stations/truck stops, I actually do prefer the new ones.

Looking back now, if feels like those older ones were straight out of a game like GTAV, which makes obvious ridiculous parodies of real things.

[AgMech]

To OP, would just like to mention that I don't agree

Many people have already explained about legal things, but besides those, I simply have no issues with them being fake, or not from real life.

Do you know every fuel company in the USA, not just by name, but from recognizing them on your daily commute?

I have never been to Europe, and do not play ETS , so I would probably not recognize any features overseas if I did see them. But I DO live here in the US, and travel very often through about 20 or so states, including many of the DLC's. And yes, I do see and recognize many of the current fuel companies found in a lot of those states, They actually vary their distribution by region, and you only see some brands in certain areas. But I also never use GPS for navigation, instead rely on looking up maps the old fashion way. That makes me notice landmarks, business locations, rivers, ect more intently so I know where I am located . I could tell you what business is located near certain exits for real, on some of the DLC's. Some of us do pay more attention to our surroundings. It is how we navigate . Just something you have to do if you do not use GPS. Been doing it for over 45 years. Just making a comment, and choosing to disagree. And as I mentioned in another post, some of us do have issues with " Fake " signs / business names. It takes away from the immersion / realism of the sim.. Things like that just make this " a simple computer game " ... we have come too far in simulations over these years to loose graphic details ... A strong point for ATS ....

[SCS_Annie]

To OP, would just like to mention that I don't agree

Many people have already explained about legal things, but besides those, I simply have no issues with them being fake, or not from real life.

Do you know every fuel company in the USA, not just by name, but from recognizing them on your daily commute?

I have never been to Europe, and do not play ETS , so I would probably not recognize any features overseas if I did see them. But I DO live here in the US, and travel very often through about 20 or so states, including many of the DLC's. And yes, I do see and recognize many of the current fuel companies found in a lot of those states, They actually vary their distribution by region, and you only see some brands in certain areas. But I also never use GPS for navigation, instead rely on looking up maps the old fashion way. That makes me notice landmarks, business locations, rivers, ect more intently so I know where I am located . I could tell you what business is located near certain exits for real, on some of the DLC's. Some of us do pay more attention to our surroundings. It is how we navigate . Just something you have to do if you do not use GPS. Been doing it for over 45 years. Just making a comment, and choosing to disagree. And as I mentioned in another post, some of us do have issues with " Fake " signs / business names. It takes away from the immersion / realism of the sim.. Things like that just make this " a simple computer game " ... we have come too far in simulations over these years to loose graphic details ... A strong point for ATS ....

If we were to licence every fake brand in the game, DLC's would take much longer to release. Licencing processes are expensive and often take months/years. Which is why we have to make compromises. Also, we don't wanna sabotage ourselves by keeping the parodies in and risking legal issues.
One day, I might be able to save up enough money for a trip to the US, because I'd love to get the feel of it, but until then, we'll still try our best working with what we have, i.e. Google street view & our creativity for the most part. It's not an easy job and I know we can't please everyone, but we still try.

[GinXeng]

@SCS_Annie Thank you for chiming in and explaining the decisions that were made due to these changes. As nice as it would be to see branded and licensed products in game, I know its not something very feasible (Or game breaking). I guess I was just accustomed to the parodies in game as they were as close as to a real thing we will ever get. I am going to assume there will be more changes to future assets as there are a few still in game that fall into that same legal category. Anyways thank you for your hard work and dedication.

[SCS_Annie]

@SCS_Annie Thank you for chiming in and explaining the decisions that were made due to these changes. As nice as it would be to see branded and licensed products in game, I know its not something very feasible (Or game breaking). I guess I was just accustomed to the parodies in game as they were as close as to a real thing we will ever get. I am going to assume there will be more changes to future assets as there are a few still in game that fall into that same legal category. Anyways thank you for your hard work and dedication.

Thanks for understanding!
More new content to come very soon, rather than replaced content. That's the only hint I'm going to drop here