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

Gameometry Research

In Gameometry’s 2nd newsletter exploring IP’s incorporation into mobile games, we’re examining in-game integration. Both the IP being utilized and the game receiving it need to be considered as equal stakeholders in generating player engagement and driving KPI uplift. For lean teams, this means ensuring the IP doesn't just provide a short-term spike, but strengthens the long-term economics of the game. Gameometry and its team have vast experience with identifying, licensing, and implementing IP into mobile games; read on, for a strategic examination of IP successes and failures.

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.


Two Ways to Deploy Licensed Content

Entire Game Usage. For the right intellectual property, and with enough time and foresight, the IP can be used to author a game’s overall identity. . This approach is becoming legacy to video game creation but remains cautiously viable. In the past, entire games like Glu’s Disney Magic Kingdoms from 2016 successfully spawned from adaptation of an IP universe into a mobile game. More recently, in 2023, Ubisoft utilized the Avatar film IP as the backbone of a new console game.


Game creation around an IP works especially well for game worlds that can use well known characters in addition to an established setting. EA’s The Simpsons Tapped Out is an example of a massively successful game based entirely on non-video game IP; Tapped Out fully engaged the source material’s settings, in-jokes, characters, voices, sounds, and more. It maintained continuity with the IP to create a genuine experience.

However, IP deployment is not a given for success. Ubisoft’s Trolls Crazy Party Forest is one of a host of ‘also rans’ where the lack of IP recognition was lethal and the overall project might have been too opportunistic. For a lean team, the risk of an "also ran" is much higher; beware of targeting a game before the audience is large or mature enough, or if it’s mostly limited to children.

Thinking critically, the requirements of modern mobile games could be limiting the value and potential of using a non-video game IP for creating an entire new project. Budgets and player expectations have increased, making expectations higher and audience sophistication greater - the time of getting an IP just for user acquisition’s sake is gone. In today’s mobile landscape, the need for years of content can strain a lean team's limited runway. Even the pace of approvals can be slower than required to operate a best in class mobile game as a service. This is all without mentioning that financial circumstances can fatally dilute margins, especially if UA commitments are part of the deal terms.Entire Game Usage is the most complex way of deploying licensed content, but won't salvage a fundamentally flawed game.


In-Game Integration. Aside from whole world adaptation and creation, IP is very helpful when used in contextualized content integration. Think of the science fiction character The Terminator in fighting franchise Mortal Kombat’s mobile games. It’s a no-brain fit. Similarly, but perhaps a little less precise, a temporary Live Operations opportunity to collect famous characters such as He-Man and Skeletor in RAID: Shadow Legends squad RPG structure.


For this approach, it’s best to consider Live Ops. Limited time, rarity, and scarcity all suit a new IP joining your experience. If your audience is excited by the collaboration, then that’s great, but if they’re upset by it, then there’s relief in knowing that the collaboration was only temporary. Making special, temporary content benefits both your game and the licensor because it generates interest, demonstrates locomotion, and teases that new IP and relationships can be part of your game (expect the unexpected).


Strategic Implementation

The key to this approach is having a game with flexibility enough to inject outside content. For a lean team, this means building "IP-Ready" modular systems from day one.

  • Audit Your Loops: Examine your core gameplay loops, the world or setting, and your economic setup for suitability.
  • Protect the Base Experience: If outside IP impacts gameplay, don’t forsake your base play experience for temporary novelty - don’t blow out power levels or give away mechanics that would otherwise serve your game in perpetuity. If your world is finely honed, maybe consider if external IP will harm that experience. Most of all, you are spending money to make money with IP licensing, so make sure the economy and the game’s sales potential are primed for the new content.
  • Learn from the Platform Model: Two of the best examples of games that act as platforms ready to accept IP are Monopoly Go! and Brawl Stars. Each has a robust play setup that welcomes new characters and settings without needing to alter the core monetization template. Both have lively Live Operations calendars where external IP isn’t disruptive to normal game operations.

IP is most powerful when it deepens player connection and strengthens your core gameplay loop. Treated strategically, it becomes a foundation for sustained engagement and revenue. Gameometry helps teams and startups evaluate IP fit, forecast ROI impact, and design LiveOps frameworks that extend engagement well beyond launch.