Do you want Garo gears/mounts to appear in the game again ?

[Limecat]

Kinda, though mostly just because I forgot to buy the Lv1 glam version of the aiming headgear before the NPC got pulled.

[Stepjam]

This. Japan has REALLY strict copyright laws and while it would have been free advertising for GARO, the lack of contract would have opened SE up to potentially being sued or fined.

Not as strong as you might think, fan comics about "real" IPs are advertised and sold all the time. Hell, companies use them as a measuring tool for how popular their IP is sometimes.

[ern815]

the next collaboration event I could foresee would be the FF7 remake event but I guess that's gonna be a long while considering it took a few years for the FFXV collab to happen.

[Enla]

Not as strong as you might think, fan comics about "real" IPs are advertised and sold all the time. Hell, companies use them as a measuring tool for how popular their IP is sometimes.

Fan comics are pretty small potatoes however and generally get away with it by being considered 'parody' under the law. That and given how rabid fan culture can often be and how many anime/game companies rely heavily on specific niches on the industry to even survive, as many series live and die by their merch sales more than anything else, it's considered very unwise to bite the proverbial hands that are helping to spread their IP about and potentially keep studios open.

Between two juggernauts like Tohokushinsha Film Corporation and SE however? There's really no legal grey area there that needs be appeased for the sake of not toppling an already wobbling set of dominoes over like with the anime and some portions of the game industry. If they can't find room for agreement then that's it. SE cannot legally keep hold of anything involving GARO barring what was stipulated in the original contract as acceptable - such as letting players keep the titles, outfits, and mounts. There's no tenuous parody defense to be made.