Leverage Is a team of four in Sweden, which helps to build permanent ideas and brands.
The company has been around for seven years and has worked with more than 40 customers and projects. The list contains large companies like Bandai Namco And Plaion A small “one-man appears in the Arctic circle,” said Christian Fonnesbech, CEO and Head IP near Hebel, in an interview with Gamesbeat.
Sometimes the team consults early with a studio and sometimes it comes too late.
“We really got to know arrogant teams and we met really modest teams,” he said. “We were really there. And the big challenge is how we reach the studio? Where does the game stop and where does the IP start? “
He brings the example of IO Interactive, the Denmark studio, which has grown to 200 people and has developed the Hitman franchise. They had created a total of four different game series, but Hitman was the biggest.
“Hitman was 65% of the company’s value,” said Fonnesbech. “They focus on gameplay and the technology and that is super necessary. There is also a second business model. You build the love for your IP. With all the time when people spend their game, they are attached to their characters and they get used to these emotions and the trips. So that’s the IP part. “
And there is a third part of how to convey it onto the market.
“How do you position yourself so that you stand out from the right people and appeal to the right people?” he said.
Origins
Fonnesbech was previously the director IP at Nordisk Games, who belonged to a large conglomerate. He worked in games, entertainment, advertising and film for decades and learned the value of IP. He worked on his career at 30 games.
“I served my time in the trenches,” he said. “When we stated at Nordisk, we found that there was no language for this lecture on IP and what was missing from the games.”
The company has a team of four and works with others if necessary.
“We just noticed that nobody knows how to build an IP. You don’t even know how to find out, which is the right leverage. Some people are lucky to have an IP. We advise the problem that we see that most studios think that way. They just want to play one game and make it and then they realize that what they actually needed was a permanent product. “
To do this, you have to take the player on an emotional journey and give you a character that you really love. You want a character that is looking for revenge or tries to find peace. You have to design the IP so that it is legally ownable and protectable, he said. It is what you usually ask when you read a book or see a film. Why does it take care of me?
“We have found that the big problem for the entire industry is that we do not carry out a pre -production on the IP. Because it’s just not a tradition. The gameplay used to be enough. So all of these companies grew up with a total focus on game content, ”he said. “We produce the game. But the emotions and the characters and the positioning – ah, let us talk about something else. A typical game development process is three to four years of development and then three months IP. “
This becomes a branding panic and IP panic for three months, he said at the end of the game when it is almost too late to change something.
“What we have been doing for seven years is people to develop a clear idea early on. The Sweet Spot is to do it early in pre -production, but of course we are often drawn at 80% finish or relaunch, ”he said. “We can find out. If you do this, suddenly support yourself on the market because you are not just a gameplay loop. “
This is necessary because maybe 17,000 games come out on Steam a year. To highlight, you don’t just have to look at the competitors for gameplay. Your IP must be unforgettable.
“Today they also have to look at their emotional competitors. So it is not used to create a great hand-to-hand fight game. If your IP is exactly the same as Batman, you won’t win. What makes Batman emotional? It is in a large city full of corruption. He is an orphan. These are the central pillars of this IP. It is not enough to take part in the gameplay, you also have to compete with emotions. “
Get buy-in
It is not just a single writer who has to achieve this, said Fonnesbech. He says the entire management team should get involved. But it is very different from companies to do because some studios are driven by a single creative force and others are managed by leadership groups. Some companies are shaped by the crazy people and the bean counters who do not like to work together.
An example that it is backwards is the League of Legends by Riot Games. It built the most successful multiplayer online Battle Arena (Moba) Pame with many characters, but not much of a story. Now it went back and created the background story and spent 250 million US dollars for two Arcane seasons on Netflix. And now it built something to which fans are emotionally connected. And if you have ever been to a League of Legends Championship Match, you will see the emotions of the crowd. Sonic The Hedgehog from Sega started the same way, with a quick character with posture and fast gameplay. Now, with the films, the emotional center of Sonic is being focused on.
Fonnesbech believes that companies such as Remedy, CD Project Red and Naughty Dog did a brilliant work to create their IP.
“If you want to build a valuable IP, the thing is not necessarily what it makes a hit,” he said. “But it is what makes it sustainable,” said Fonnesbech. “I would recommend characters. You don’t have to have it, but it’s really good. Having a character is just a big anchor and intent. You can talk about an emotional journey. What is the emotional journey? Franchise companies and IPs are like valued memories that you want to experience. “
He added: “If you record Hitman or the latest Bourne film or something, expect you to have this emotional journey. Lara Croft is still looking for her father in the ruins, and you know that Geralt of Rivia is still the outsider who tries to protect the people who actually do not trust him. They come back for the same feeling. Then there is a unique world. They think of Hitman, they think of Lara Croft, they think of Superman. It is a world and a certain tone and a certain attitude to which you also come back. So these things start. The more of them you have, the more coherent the IP. “
If it works well
Some companies such as Skybound, the manufacturer of The Walking Dead, will test a new IP in a strange form. When it swings, the writer’s room is to work on it and get different types of media out. It tests the water and doubles the hits. The “good never” died in front of the dead of Walking Dead, he said.
But people have to take care of the “Transmedia Errum”, said Fonnesbech. “The idea that we will go out six media at the same time and it will be a bigger hit. That doesn’t work. You have to get out of everything you have on a medium and get it running. It is so difficult to make a good piece of games or fiction or a good story. “
Fonnesbech said how things have worked with 34,000 layoffs in the industry in recent years, that there was a delayed effect for his own advice. While other large companies were hit earlier, the crisis came for him in spring 2024 when there was a big game.
“Things are booming now and it feels like there is a greater need for this way of thinking because I think that the publishers and investors are a bit more careful to invest in strange miracles,” he said. “If you want to use all of these investments, you want to see something that will take.”
Source link
