The best examples of IP getting licensed in video games, as well as the latest news on collaborations, brand partnerships and in-game events.
Welcome to the latest edition of the Layer licensing newsletter, covering the biggest updates and news stories on brand collaborations, partnerships and licensing deals in the world of video games.?
When games work with IP from popular artists, brands, or franchises they can create interactive experiences that deliver unrivalled fan engagement and player experiences.?
From major fashion houses such as Dior and Gucci making major moves in the esports space, a Disney makeover for the mobile game Cookie Kingdom, and a deliciously cool ice cream partnership with Nintendo, here are our favourite IP plays from July.?
The city-building mobile game Cookie Run Kingdom gets a Disney-themed makeover
You might not be familiar with Cookie Run Kingdom. Like most mobile games, Cookie Run Kingdom flies under the rader of media coverage from gaming outlets, but the latest figures show it received over?200k monthly downloads in June?while also earning over $3m in revenue that same month. It’s part of the Cookie Run franchise, which has reached more than?100 million downloads worldwide, and was the?eighth most-downloaded?hypercasual iOS game in 2021.?
If those numbers weren’t reason enough for Disney to get in on the hype, Cookie Run Kingdom’s younger demographic of players, animated aesthetic and character-based game mechanics are the perfect match for Disney’s catalogue of cartoon icons. The end result is the Festival Dream of Wishes, which basically turns the crumbling cookie kingdom into a Disney wonderland.?
Dior makes its virtual world debut after going for a spin in Gran Turismo 7
In between Balenciaga popping up in Fortnite, Gucci creating its own virtual world in Roblox and numerous collaborations between Louis Vuitton and League of Legends, video games have become the hottest experimental playground for high fashion brands. In fact, you’d struggle to find a notable fashion brand that hasn’t made a major video game play in the last year with the exception of Dior - at least until very recently.
At the end of July, Dior announced a?new collaboration with the PlayStation racing sim, Gran Turismo, which will also be the first time Dior’s designs have been made available in-game in a virtual space. From 25 August, Gran Turismo players can dress their avatar in an exclusive yellow and grey Dior racing overall, matching gloves, reinterpreted ‘Diorzion’ shoes and a blue and grey helmet before taking the Dior customised De Tomaso Mangusta for a spin.?
EA Sports and La Liga join forces to take EA's legacy in football games to the next level
Back in May, EA Sports FIFA made the bold decision to drop the FIFA name and rebrand to EA Sports FC following the expiration of EA’s license with football’s global governing body. This news was arguably one of the biggest licensing stories of the decade.?
For many football fans, EA Sports FIFA played a significant role in their fandom; fans have immersed themselves with their favourite players, clubs, countries, and even stadiums through the game. So EA’s decision to step away from FIFA licensing left people wondering what the future of sports games would look like, particularly with well documented objections to FIFPro (A FIFA entity) licensing from football players – the most high profiled objections coming from global stars?Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Gareth Bale.
In Brief
Here are some of our favourite brand collaborations, licensing deals and partnerships from the month of June:
- “Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, when I was dead broke, man I couldn't picture this,” nor could we picture a reality where Notorious B.I.G.’s music gets a release in one of most popular games of all time, Fortnite. The ‘It Was All A Dream,’ music pack?will set you back 200 V-bucks, roughly the price of a coffee. Well worth it, in our opinion.
- After successful collaborations with The Walking Dead and Batman, State of Survival can add another big name to its collaboration list: UFC. The Walking Dead collaboration game led to 20M new installs according to?PocketGamer, we’ll be keeping an eye on this latest mash-up to see if it hits as hard.
- Cosmetic skins are a constant source of revenue for freemium mobile games, and we’re confident that these?new Star Wars skins in Mobile Legends: Bang Bang?will be a hit with players (and probably make both parties a lot of money).
- With Honda’s recent Hondaverse and McLaren flipping NFTs in a partnership with InfiniteWorld, there seems to be a new trend of automotive brands making moves into video games and the metaverse. Now Volvo is getting in on the action thanks to its recent partnership with Farming Simulator 22, allowing players to “feel all the thrill of driving a Volvo Construction Equipment machine from the comfort of their living room.” Before you laugh, we’d like to point out that the Farming Simulator franchise has sold over 30 million copies, and as?iVT’s editor points out in their write-up, there’s a chance here for Volvo to “introduce operator skills to an audience who may not have been able to access them before.” Brands using video games as a tool to educate people in addition to brand awareness? We think that’s pretty cool.
- This is one of the most delicious collaborations we’ve ever seen, and the fact it’s with Nintendo is the icing on the cake (or rather, Rainbow Road sprinkles in this case). ColdStoneCreamery has teamed up with Nintendo for three new game-inspired creations and an icecream cake. If you want to find out what Kirby tastes like, you can?read the full release here.
- PUBG: MOBILE stepped into the virtual concert space following its collaboration with the K-pop band, BLACKPINK. Fans were treated to a run of virtual concerts across four different dates and timezones, and the entire experience was monetised with new skins and cosmetic items.?More here.
- Remember the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater games??Birdman is back. Well, kind of. This time he’s dropping into the virtual world of Sandbox in a collaboration that allows players to tear it up in their own skatepark, but the decision to integrate this experience with NFTs has been met by a backlash by gamers, who make up a large portion of Tony Hawk’s fanbase. Hit and miss.?
- The Pokemon Company is responsible for some of the biggest licensing plays in the video game world, and now they’ve collaborated with Squishmallows for a run of?soft pillows based on iconic Pokemon.
- Collaborations between brands and video games don’t have to be virtual ones, and this latest collaboration between?Genshin Impact and the UK’s sporting festival, Boardmasters, proves just that. The world of Teyvat will be brought to (hopefully) sunny Cornwall in an exclusive brand area offering games, fun challenges and snacks, along with a big musical surprise to be announced before then.
- Stray, the latest game from Annapurna Interactive, launched to rave reviews last month, largely due to the fact it’s entirely cat-based. To celebrate its launch, the developer has collaborated with pet accessory brand Travel Cat for a?limited edition cat carrier. If you want to get your claws on one, it’ll set you back ￡160.
- The Japanese fashion brand SuperGroupies which specialises in merchandise inspired by anime and video games has released a?Kingdom Hearts capsule?and it looks fantastic.
- Think you escaped Wordle? Think again.?Now it’s being turned into a board game. RIP our productivity.?
In other news…?
- Don’t be fooled into thinking virtual concerts are only taking place on platforms such as Roblox and Fortnite.?Garena Free Fire announced that Justin Bieber will be perform live?on stage in its virtual world on August 27th following the game’s successful concerts with BTS and DJ Alok. We’ll have more on this after the performance in next month’s newsletter.
- Sony PlayStation has entered into a new licensing agreement with Spin Master, providing the company with access to some of PlayStation’s biggest first-party franchises including God of War, Horizon, The Last of Us and Uncharted. Expect plenty of action figures, collectibles, playsets, plush dolls, vehicles, RCs and puzzles.
- Guild eSports becomes the first-ever European sports team organisation to?sign a global sponsorship deal?with the Cola Cola Company.
- Roblox –?one of the largest players in the virtual concert and metaverse space –?made several key appointments across its partnerships team responsible for brand collaborations in the TV, film, sports, fashion and beauty sectors. Alongside the appointment of Karibi Dagogo-Jack as the company’s head of music partnerships, Todd Lichten (ex-Meta) joins as head of entertainment partnerships; Winnie Burke as head of fashion and beauty partnerships; and Hayden Walling as head of sports partnerships.?CMU has the full update?and goes into more detail about Roblox’s exciting future.
- This?op-ed in MCV?off the back of the Lego Group’s $1bn investment into Epic Games is definitely worth a read. Epic is widely considered as being one of the leading players when it comes to setting the foundations for the metaverse and this piece by Stuart Smith, a corporate transactions and intellectual property lawyer, dives into the importance of the shared vision between the Lego Group and Epic Games to create something that’s “safe and fun for both children and families.”
- Looking for proof of the power of influencer marketing? Look no further than TenZ’s collaboration with the gaming mouse manufacturer Finalmouse. The?limited edition Starlight Pro - TenZ mouse?sold out of all 40k units in just a couple of hours, generating over $7.6m in revenue, half of which went to TenZ. Not bad for a day’s work.
- And on the topic of collaborations and metaverse building blocks (no pun intended),?Unity has merged with ironSource, proving game creators with even more tools to create, publish, run and monetize their video games.
- You’ll know them as the company responsible for those impossible-to-escape vinyl recreations of pop culture characters, but the?Funko Pop company has announced it’s working with 10:10 Games?to create a video game. The company has previously worked with Xbox Game Studios to create Gears Pop!
For more on licensing in video games, head over to our blog
Licensing IP into the Chinese market
Last year was a rollercoaster year for the video game industry in China. It was threatened by strong new legislation, new data...
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