I noticed that despite Godfather 2 being released in just 2009 it doesn't seen to be available on any DD sites - not even Origin and its an EA game!
Is this because the rights for EA to sell anything Godfather related have expired already?
If so then anyone still holding out hope for Blade Runner to show up can pretty much give up now!
The only games based on external IP that seem to be safe are anything from Lucus Arts based on Star Wars and anything from Rebellion based on 200AD as those developers / publishers own the IP
That, and, for some reason D&D - either WotC are just nice guys or rightfully see it as free advertising to get people into tabletop D&D, so I guess that means there's hope for the MicroProse M: TG game if we ever get Take Two, even if it would kind of compete with Duels of the Placeswalkers and the main Magic online thing
Another random musing - how come car games can't be re-licensed but flight sims can - surely the F-16 or whatever is an IP of someone - Lockheed Martin, or whatever...

Well, I can give you the very unsatisfying answer that licencing deals are very different from game to game. Some might have a licence that basically gives them unlimited publishing rights for the game, others might have a time stamp.

Only by reading the original contracts one can surely know. But that problem isn't only an issue with gaming. Some classic TV shows can't be sold as DVDs because of the music they used (or with an alternative soundtrack). Like this Vietnam show, which name I can't remember right now ...

I'm gonna guess the show was Tour of Duty? Pretty much because I can't name another Vietnam TV show...

Tour of Duty is on dvd minus certain music. China Beach however is not on dvd.

Exactly. I suspect that this may be the case for the game the OP mentioned, because AFAIK such clauses are especially common in licenses based on a literature IP, like "Godfather".

Example: The GURPS role playing game published a lot of rule books based on existing IP (sci-fi books, TV shows, even the "SId Meier's Alpha Centauri" game). In the past years, GURPS has shifted to publish e-documents rather than printed books. They are re-releasing many of their past books as pdf. However, they can't re-release those licensed works because their contracts wouldn't allow a change of format. (Even if a format switch isn't explicitly forbidden by the contract, it would be by default, unless a clause explicitly allows it).

The only thing that keeps me wondering with this explanation is that the sharks in EA's law department are unlikely to "forget" such a clause, but perhaps the IP holder just didn't want to include it.

Absolutely this.

I know a DVD Box, that has been edited a lot, as music was used that they have no licence anymore... "ALF" it is. Could possibly the same reason for games base on movies. Only way to know for sure is ask the publisher, if there are any legal reasons, why they can't sell that certain game online. There is a little chance that they will give you an answer ;)

That sounds especially peevish if the show actually 'broke' the artists and made them popular in the first place...

It is, I do wonder how much more it would have cost for them to include the rights in perpetuity, but that show itself was from like the early '80s and I doubt anybody was thinking about redistribution of the shows for home use.