Lessons in Modern Intellectual Property Utilization for Mobile Free-to-Play Games

This article is our first in a new series focused on IP use in mobile free-to-play games. We previously explored IP use in social casino implementations (archived here).

With the maturation of the mobile game market, attracting and maintaining an audience is key to success. Throughout their history, video games have relied on Intellectual Property (IP) to entice and retain players by engaging the audience with familiar content through facsimile, peripheral or novel interpretations of other media into video game formats. Gameometry and its team have vast experience with identifying, licensing, and implementing IP into mobile games.

Caveat: our definition of IP covers trademarks, designs, aesthetics, brand names and logos, fictional characters, worlds, and stories that are legally owned, licensed, or enforced.

PART 1. Not All IP are Mobile Game Appropriate

Despite brand recognition and availability, IP is only as valuable as the audience it attracts. The first step to IP integration requires the same diligence as initiating a new game project. Understanding the IP’s target audience, demographics, total addressable size, revenue potential, the perceived quality of the IP (separately and combined with your game), and the competitors are necessary to maintain a tight business focus. Be cautious not to get caught up in licensor, or your own, hype.

Studios, especially startups, can be eager to make a ‘flashy’ deal with a licensor to legitimize and promote themselves, but beware of the expense, effort and ongoing opportunity cost of suboptimal IP. For example, revived nostalgia IP, relying on a celebrity (who may or may not be a forthcoming cooperator), or new market entrants come with extra risk because the ability to quantify KPI uplift is harder to determine. With any IP collaboration, determine the possibility of lower CPI in combination with the uplift in engagement and monetization you expect as a formula to compare with the financial arrangement to secure the IP.

One example from Gameometry’s experience was the movie license for R.I.P.D. in 2013. It was a new movie with ‘franchise potential’ that was based on a successful graphic novel with two top tier Hollywood talents attached. Ultimately, negotiations were unsuccessful which turned out to be a boon as the movie underperformed, no franchise was initiated, and other subsequent uses of the IP later arose. To have started a game based off that movie IP or to have done an intense collaboration might have proved a costly mistake.

Strict diligence and restraint can be required when assessing IP fit; the historical landscape has numerous examples of mistakes. IP is most powerful when it deepens player connection and strengthens your core gameplay loop. Treated strategically, IP becomes a foundation for sustained engagement and revenue.

As a reminder, Gameometry helps partners evaluate IP fit, forecast ROI impact, and design LiveOps frameworks that extend engagement well beyond launch. Questions? Please reach out.