Speaker 1: Welcome to Strictly Business, Variety's weekly podcast feature and conversations
Speaker 1: with industry leaders about.
Speaker 2: The business of media and entertainment.
Speaker 1: I'm Jennifer Moz, Variety's senior business writer, TV and video games. Today,
Speaker 1: my guest is Eric Wood, senior vice president of publishing
Speaker 1: at mobile game giant scope Lee. Founding in twenty eleven,
Speaker 1: Scopeley has already proven itself to be a major player
Speaker 1: within the mobile gaming industry, but in May, the company
Speaker 1: drew more eyes than ever when its worldwide hit Monopoly
Speaker 1: Go became the fastest mobile game industry to surpass five
Speaker 1: million dollars in lifetime revenue, doing so in just twenty
Speaker 1: four months. Additionally, scop Lee recently closed the Nantic deal,
Speaker 1: which brings another big hit into its full Pokemon Go,
Speaker 1: among other games. Here to speak about the success that
Speaker 1: Scopoly has experienced and where it's going in the future
Speaker 1: within the larger mobile gaming industry is Eric Wood, Senior
Speaker 1: vice president of publishing at scope Lay.
Speaker 3: All right, well, thank you so much for joining me today, Eric,
Speaker 3: I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2: You're welcome, thanks for having me.
Speaker 3: Of course, Well, we're going to go into you specifically
Speaker 3: and all the inner workings at Scope Lay. But really
Speaker 3: I just like to start off with one huge congratulations
Speaker 3: on the five billion dollars in lifetime revenue that milestone
Speaker 3: from Monopoly Go. That's truly a staggering number in twenty
Speaker 3: four months. So I'd like to start there because that
Speaker 3: was announced in May. That's a very recent milestone for
Speaker 3: you all, and I just like to get an idea
Speaker 3: first foremost what you think that means for scoply in general,
Speaker 3: but also for the larger a larger mobile gaming industry
Speaker 3: that hitting that milestone.
Speaker 2: No thanks, I mean we've we're not only happy, but
Speaker 2: phil incredibly blessed and fortunate. You know, we have a
Speaker 2: to have a game that not only has reached that
Speaker 2: major milestone, which is fantastic. But for us, I think
Speaker 2: what's more important than the financial metric is it shows
Speaker 2: us and tells us that, you know, players and consumers
Speaker 2: are loving the game, right, they're loving it. They're they're
Speaker 2: not only giving it, they're not only sort of giving
Speaker 2: us there and in contributing their you know, their money
Speaker 2: to the game, but more importantly, they're contributing their time. Right.
Speaker 2: I think that's the thing that's most important to us,
Speaker 2: Like we want to build experiences for consumers and for
Speaker 2: fans that completely resonate with them and for them. They
Speaker 2: have so many considerations. I would say, you know, when
Speaker 2: you think about all the things that are coming at
Speaker 2: them day after day, moment of the moment, whether it
Speaker 2: be streaming to podcasts, what have you, which are all amazing,
Speaker 2: but they give us just a little slice of their
Speaker 2: time every day. And so with that we we are
Speaker 2: so appreciative and grateful for.
Speaker 3: Those who might not be familiar, which probably isn't as
Speaker 3: because of that staggering five billion number. Can you give
Speaker 3: a little overview of exactly what Monopoly Go is and
Speaker 3: how you will have kind of incorporated partnerships and collaborations
Speaker 3: that keep people coming back to the game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say, so Monopoly Go has really been
Speaker 2: I would say a. I'll use the term labor of
Speaker 2: love right for the team, and so I'll speak Hopeles.
Speaker 2: It's okay, I'll speak on behalf of the team right
Speaker 2: now when I say that the development team, and that
Speaker 2: you know they were in development that project for many
Speaker 2: many years because they were trying to find you know,
Speaker 2: the fun. They were trying to find something that was
Speaker 2: not just a game. There's lots of games that launch,
Speaker 2: you know, every day, and all kinds of different platforms,
Speaker 2: but it's like, what can resident really resonate, right, Like
Speaker 2: what can appeal to to consumers that know and love
Speaker 2: the Monopoly brand but also more importantly they feel like
Speaker 2: they can come back to on a daily basis. And
Speaker 2: so this game was in development for many, many years.
Speaker 2: They had several design iterations within the game, but they
Speaker 2: ultimately said, on an experience that is not your traditional
Speaker 2: Monopoly experience, and kudos to Hasbro. Hasbro was very willing
Speaker 2: to go on that journey with us. You know. You know,
Speaker 2: sometimes we understand as an owner of a brand, you know,
Speaker 2: especially a very large brand that's known around the world
Speaker 2: and has been around for as long as this man
Speaker 2: has excuse me, sometimes you know, you will have very
Speaker 2: specific and strict rules when it comes to that brand, right,
Speaker 2: and how consumers think about it and how they engage
Speaker 2: with it. And of course has has that there are
Speaker 2: some you know, hard and steadfast rules that you you know,
Speaker 2: that mister Monopoly should never do or you know, things
Speaker 2: like that, which makes sense. But they were very open
Speaker 2: to go with us on the journey of figuring out,
Speaker 2: like what new experiences we could bring to a Monopoly
Speaker 2: game in the market. That sure leverages some of the
Speaker 2: things that fans know and love about the brand, but
Speaker 2: maybe you wouldn't expect when it comes to a mobile game.
Speaker 2: So apologies, I think things like the fact that you
Speaker 2: know you can go and attack a friend in the game.
Speaker 2: From a digital acy perspective is it's not what you
Speaker 2: do in physical Monopoly, meaning you play against each other competitively. Sorry,
Speaker 2: apologies you, that's something coming through. You play against people competitively,
Speaker 2: for sure, but this concept of you actually attack someone
Speaker 2: and go after their actual landmarks, it creates this sort
Speaker 2: of like it's a different game pattern, but it still
Speaker 2: leans into the things that people love about Monopoly. Meaning
Speaker 2: if I land on Park Avenue, you own Park Avenue,
Speaker 2: you know, you have to pay me rent and then
Speaker 2: I'm kind of upset about it because I have to
Speaker 2: pay you money. You get you know, you get agitated
Speaker 2: or irritating in the game. We just did it in
Speaker 2: a much different way, And I would say, like I said,
Speaker 2: Hasbro was fantastic to work for, and I think that's
Speaker 2: really what resonated with fans. So when we launched the game.
Speaker 2: Of course people saw it's like, oh it's Monopoly, like
Speaker 2: people I love, let me, let me check it out.
Speaker 2: But I think what's kept them around is the fact
Speaker 2: that we really were creative and imaginative when it comes
Speaker 2: to what you experience when you actually play Monopoly in
Speaker 2: this form.
Speaker 3: I'll say one thing, you know, Like as a family,
Speaker 3: Monopoly is a very tense game for my group. It
Speaker 3: normally needs to get put away before we even finish it.
Speaker 3: But Monopoly good. Yes, we love it and you forget
Speaker 3: and then you play. But Monopoly Go does have that
Speaker 3: quality where I feel like I can do it every day,
Speaker 3: and it doesn't. It's still that fury with would be.
Speaker 3: But there's also so many promotions that you all do,
Speaker 3: so many in game events and partnerships like that, and
Speaker 3: I want to know, you know how those really come about.
Speaker 3: You talked about, you know, things mister Monopoly would never do.
Speaker 3: So thinking through what this brand is, who is a
Speaker 3: good fit to partner with, and what makes sense for
Speaker 3: you all.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think first and foremost when we think about brand,
Speaker 2: let's say collaborations, right, which is what this is, because
Speaker 2: this is not we already have a game in the
Speaker 2: market where there is a brand that, you know, in
Speaker 2: this case, Monopoly and mister Monopoly that's in it, and
Speaker 2: then we start to think about does it make sense
Speaker 2: to bring you know, a third party, let's just say it,
Speaker 2: you know, in that way into this experience it, I think,
Speaker 2: first and foremost it has to be authentic, right, like,
Speaker 2: would it makes sense, Like sure you could. You could
Speaker 2: do lots of different mashups of like just some amazing
Speaker 2: brands you know in the marketplace, which people will be
Speaker 2: go like, oh that's interesting, it's recognizable, but when they
Speaker 2: show up, you want to make sure that it feels
Speaker 2: authentic to both brands. And I think one of the
Speaker 2: unique things that we have when it comes to Monopoly
Speaker 2: is that mont Hasbro and Monopoly on the physical game
Speaker 2: board side has a long history, right working with their
Speaker 2: pretty brands many many different ones from Star Wars to
Speaker 2: Friends to too many of the name right where they
Speaker 2: actually have really sort of intermingled these sort of two
Speaker 2: worlds together in a very authentic way. And so you know,
Speaker 2: when we were thinking about the game, it wasn't something
Speaker 2: that when we built the game, when we launched the game,
Speaker 2: where we're like, oh, we're going to do you know
Speaker 2: other through party ip collaborations. That was never the plan.
Speaker 2: As the team was thinking about the roadmap for the game,
Speaker 2: we were thinking about a lot of different angles, and
Speaker 2: the marketing team was obviously thinking about things that we
Speaker 2: could do, and what came up was what's authentic to
Speaker 2: the brand? And that's when we're like, well, let's look
Speaker 2: at what people think of when they think of physical
Speaker 2: and they're like, what would make sense in our world?
Speaker 2: And that's when sort of third party brands you know,
Speaker 2: came about and we're like and we talked to Hasro
Speaker 2: about it and they were like, yeah, actually we never
Speaker 2: thought about that. That actually is super cool. Once again,
Speaker 2: you're leaning into the fandom, right, the sort of history,
Speaker 2: the ethos of the brand itself, and so that was
Speaker 2: first and foremost we needed to make sure it felt
Speaker 2: authentic to the actual the brand right itself. And then
Speaker 2: the second thing is our marketing team, our community teams.
Speaker 2: Be's a lot of time with the players and doing
Speaker 2: constant sort of or having constant conversations with them about
Speaker 2: where they like in the game, where they don't like
Speaker 2: in the game, whichould they change, lots of feedback, which
Speaker 2: we love feedback from our players, but specifically asking about
Speaker 2: what would you like and one of the things you
Speaker 2: because you gotta be careful about how you introduce or
Speaker 2: talk to community because you don't want to kind of
Speaker 2: tip your hat. But we were talking about just sort
Speaker 2: of third party brands and what they resonate with and
Speaker 2: that kind of stuff, and it was clear that the
Speaker 2: fans of this game were excited about the idea of
Speaker 2: us potentially partnering with different brands, and so we did
Speaker 2: a lot of research, a lot of sort of consumer
Speaker 2: insights work, and that's sort of how we got to
Speaker 2: the place where we started to think about, okay, what
Speaker 2: would be the you know, sort of first brands that
Speaker 2: we would actually work with, and for us, you know,
Speaker 2: we knew it would have to be globally recognizable brands,
Speaker 2: you know, brands that once again resonate with I think
Speaker 2: the Monopoly franchise right and have a history, and that's
Speaker 2: obviously how we we landed in places like the first
Speaker 2: collaboration last year was with with Marvel, which we actually executed,
Speaker 2: which was fantastic. The Marvel team was amazing to work with.
Speaker 2: I will say when we went to them and said,
Speaker 2: what do you think about Monopoly Go. They were like
Speaker 2: really like they were like one of those like it
Speaker 2: never was obvious to them of us doing that, and
Speaker 2: kudos to them once again. They were very open and
Speaker 2: they're like, well, what would that even look like? And
Speaker 2: we're like, here's how we think about honoring both brands,
Speaker 2: and they're like, that's amazing. Uh, and you know, and
Speaker 2: well we've done since then. The next one that we
Speaker 2: did is Star Wars, which is now live in the game,
Speaker 2: and I would say the fans have been responding so
Speaker 2: positive to positively to that integration. They've done an amazing
Speaker 2: They've they've you know, when it comes to their actual
Speaker 2: engagement in the game, but also just what we hear
Speaker 2: in social and through community channels, like they're all kind
Speaker 2: of trying to anticipate what element or aspect of Star
Speaker 2: Wars is going to show up next in the game itself,
Speaker 2: which to us is that's rewarding because that means they're
Speaker 2: enjoying it. They're loving it.
Speaker 3: Now I've taken a step back here. You know, obviously
Speaker 3: Monopoly Go is a huge one ferial, It's probably what
Speaker 3: you're best known for at the moment, but looking at
Speaker 3: Scopoly as a whole if you can, you kind of
Speaker 3: give an over here what you guys do when you
Speaker 3: came on the scene and what else do you have
Speaker 3: to offer?
Speaker 2: Yeah, specifically you're asking about IP collaborations.
Speaker 3: No scope, Lee just in general as a company.
Speaker 2: Oh, got it. Yes, I would say there's really a
Speaker 2: couple of things that are really important to us, right
Speaker 2: as a company. Obviously, we're the number one mobile game
Speaker 2: company in the world today.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: You talked about some of the actual major milestones that
Speaker 2: we've had over the last couple of years, which is fantastic.
Speaker 2: But I think the thing that for us is incredibly
Speaker 2: important is that we want to make sure that we're
Speaker 2: designing games that are blending narrative, you know, social mechanics
Speaker 2: that make sense for different games, and then at the
Speaker 2: end of the day, doing that for bloff print or
Speaker 2: fan bases, right, and whether that's in working with other
Speaker 2: IP partners. We have a long history right of working
Speaker 2: with IP partners, right, everything from Hasro Mattel to Disney
Speaker 2: to WWE to it feels kind of like you name it,
Speaker 2: we've kind of have worked with them. And it doesn't
Speaker 2: mean that we work with everyone, but we really kind
Speaker 2: of try to figure out like, where are there extremely
Speaker 2: passionate fans and consumers that love right in IP And
Speaker 2: we figure out, like, Okay, how do we actually bring
Speaker 2: what's important to us in great game making? Right has
Speaker 2: great creative and then really bring those two things together
Speaker 2: and marry them. I say that's one, and that's that's
Speaker 2: you know, of utmost important to us. And then the
Speaker 2: other thing is, you know, how do we actually do
Speaker 2: that in a forever franchise sort of like manner, meaning
Speaker 2: we're not looking to just build games and to build
Speaker 2: games that like have a lifespan of three years or
Speaker 2: four years. Our goal is like we want this game
Speaker 2: to be around and not just around, but in consumers
Speaker 2: lives for ten plus years. That is like the utmost
Speaker 2: important to us. And we take a lot of pride
Speaker 2: in that and and we were really committed to actually
Speaker 2: doing that for fans on a daily basis.
Speaker 3: I'd love to know about your background specifically, and then
Speaker 3: if you can speak to you know what your role
Speaker 3: as seen your vice president publishing at Scope looks like
Speaker 3: on a day to day basis, what is your purview?
Speaker 2: Sure exactly, I have no problem. So I have been
Speaker 2: in the digital entertainment space, I would say for the
Speaker 2: last twenty plus years. Started early in my career at
Speaker 2: EA and worked at EA. I had the pleasure of
Speaker 2: working at Disney for a period of time, and then
Speaker 2: moved into the free to play gaming space with Zinga
Speaker 2: back when Zinga was early days on Facebook. Think of
Speaker 2: games like Farmville and Cityville, which was amazing when you
Speaker 2: think about the move to free to play. I then
Speaker 2: had a short departure where I left and went to
Speaker 2: Nikate working in the digital and direct consumer space, and
Speaker 2: then saw my way back the games that was missing
Speaker 2: it and have spent now the last five and a
Speaker 2: half years split between Activision Blizzard. In the last two
Speaker 2: and a half years here at Scopoly.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, sorry, go ahead, you know.
Speaker 2: From and then as far as my role and what
Speaker 2: I'm responsible responsible for here at Scope Lee one, my
Speaker 2: team works with all of our distribution relationships on a
Speaker 2: day to day basis, so from everyone from Xbox, PlayStation, Steam,
Speaker 2: you name it when it comes to distribution or contents.
Speaker 2: I also lead our director consumer sort of operations for
Speaker 2: the company, but also I'm responsible for everything we do
Speaker 2: from a business development perspective, so obviously working with IP
Speaker 2: partners on a day to day basis. Is one of
Speaker 2: the main priorities that I am my team focus on.
Speaker 3: As we've already mentioned a couple of times here, scope
Speaker 3: ly is a giant in the mobile gaming industry, but
Speaker 3: you all got even bigger with the Pokemon Go and
Speaker 3: Nantech acquisition here, So I'd like to talk about that
Speaker 3: and you know how you will see that in positioning
Speaker 3: yourselves even further as a leader within the mobile gaming
Speaker 3: industry and what you plan to do with that brand
Speaker 3: moving forward.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I look weird so excited about the being part
Speaker 2: of the team. Obviously that brings part of that acquisition.
Speaker 2: It brings a global, you know phenomenon when you think
Speaker 2: about Pokemon Go. When think about when that game watched
Speaker 2: in twenty sixteen, like it was everywhere and it still is.
Speaker 2: It's a massive game. But it brings that game as
Speaker 2: well as other great games to our portfolio, which is fantastic.
Speaker 2: But those games attract today over one hundred million unique players, right,
Speaker 2: That's that's an incredible privilege for us to bring that
Speaker 2: into the portfolio and how we actually help serve them
Speaker 2: on a daily basis. They have today over thirty million
Speaker 2: in AU When you think about scale, and even just
Speaker 2: looking at their business last year, it's been over a
Speaker 2: billion dollars in revenue. Like so like when we talk
Speaker 2: about some of the you know, success, I would say
Speaker 2: that Scope Plays had recently, which is amazing. Then we're
Speaker 2: pairing that the opportunity to pair that with another amazing
Speaker 2: company that has some amazing franchises. It's like like, in
Speaker 2: some ways it kind of pinch ourselves and say, I
Speaker 2: can't believe that we actually get to partner together. The
Speaker 2: other thing I would say is that's I think it's
Speaker 2: why it's a great such a great fit is that
Speaker 2: we focus on as a company. One of the things
Speaker 2: we focus on as a company is player engagement, meaning
Speaker 2: like how much how often do players play in the game,
Speaker 2: and how often do they come back? Like not sure,
Speaker 2: we're a business, and so revenue is obviously things that
Speaker 2: have that keeps the lights on, but really if players
Speaker 2: are giving us their time, right, that's the most important thing.
Speaker 2: And when we look at Pokemon Go, I mean they
Speaker 2: spend on average forty minutes in the game on a
Speaker 2: daily basis. That is pretty phenomenal. And so once again
Speaker 2: the idea of them coming into the into the mix
Speaker 2: and being part of our portfolio is amazing and our
Speaker 2: hope is that we we're going to be here to
Speaker 2: support them, you know, help give them all the resource
Speaker 2: or all the help that they can actually ever need
Speaker 2: to hope they continue to notly you know, you know,
Speaker 2: make fans appreciate the game, but hopefully grow that game
Speaker 2: even more. So we're credibly excited about that.
Speaker 3: We'll be backed more from Scopely after this break. When
Speaker 3: you look at, you know, the the overall gaming industry
Speaker 3: at the moment, you know, there's a lot that it's
Speaker 3: gone through just in the past couple of years. There
Speaker 3: was a pandemic boom, then there were changes, there was
Speaker 3: a lot of stuff, and no one's really been immune
Speaker 3: to that. But one thing I want to focus on
Speaker 3: here is just the mobile gaming industry and the amount
Speaker 3: of growth and the amount that that really takes up
Speaker 3: within overall gaming. And I feel like that goes unnoticed
Speaker 3: every now and then because we look at Splashy, Triple A,
Speaker 3: we look at big titles, we look at big players,
Speaker 3: and forget how much of the overall gaming is made
Speaker 3: up by mobile. So I want to get kind of
Speaker 3: your take, especially on a potential stigma there for what
Speaker 3: mobile gaming is, because I know I'll talk to like
Speaker 3: my parents when they're like, I'm talking about games with
Speaker 3: them and they're like, oh, I don't game, and I'm like, okay,
Speaker 3: the games you're playing on your phone those are games, guys.
Speaker 3: And they're like, oh, okay, well then in that case, yes,
Speaker 3: I'm a gamer. So I'd like to get your take
Speaker 3: on that.
Speaker 2: Look, I have similar story with my mom. I remember
Speaker 2: years ago where she was we were talking about the
Speaker 2: industry and she did she was like, I don't really understand.
Speaker 2: She goes, I'm not a gamer, and I lily said, well,
Speaker 2: open up your phone. What do you have on your phone?
Speaker 2: And it was one of those and I can't remember
Speaker 2: what she had, but she had a casual game on
Speaker 2: her phone. I'm like, you are a Gamer's like, no,
Speaker 2: i'm not. And I'm like, you are a gamer. I'm like,
Speaker 2: why do you think that? She goes and she has
Speaker 2: the stigma and that sort of like idea of like
Speaker 2: a gamer looks like this and plays in this way.
Speaker 2: You know, plays in front of a big screen, right,
Speaker 2: plays on a console, plays on a PC, which, look,
Speaker 2: those are amazing mediums to deliver amazing stories and franchises.
Speaker 2: Like I there are some amazing games that I personally
Speaker 2: my kids play on a on a constant basis. When
Speaker 2: it comes to like Triple A, I would say, the
Speaker 2: thing that makes mobile so unique, and specifically from a
Speaker 2: gaming perspective is thinks are obvious, but it's on a
Speaker 2: device that's in your pocket all day every day. It's accessible.
Speaker 2: Everyone has it. Like while console on a PC is
Speaker 2: amazing because it's amazing piece of hardware that can deliver
Speaker 2: some fantastic experiences, it does have, you know, a barrier,
Speaker 2: right when not everyone can actually afford it from a
Speaker 2: pricing perspective, or just maybe they don't have like the
Speaker 2: space or what have you. A phone is everyone has one.
Speaker 2: It's democratized, right, And the fact that we can actually
Speaker 2: leverage that piece of hardware and that device to actually
Speaker 2: bring amazing experiences to consumers is it's amazing. Right. So
Speaker 2: that sort of solves like the distribution scale problem when
Speaker 2: you think about mobile. And then another thing that I
Speaker 2: think makes mobile very unique is that you know, we
Speaker 2: are focused on building amazing experiences. I would say sometimes
Speaker 2: Triple A, they're amazing games, but they're very much focused
Speaker 2: on the visual quality, right, which is great, I think
Speaker 2: what mobile and we deliver great visual quality, but we
Speaker 2: over index on I think is really are we making
Speaker 2: sure that we engage the player? Like, what do the
Speaker 2: behavior patterns that we see? Do players like this experience?
Speaker 2: Does that actually motivate them to come back and give
Speaker 2: us more time and play you know tomorrow? Well? And
Speaker 2: so we have this, We're constantly iterating and testing different
Speaker 2: concepts and ideas, and the goal for us is just like,
Speaker 2: how are once again going to my twitarlier point, how
Speaker 2: are consumers showing us that they love something with their time?
Speaker 2: And I think that's the unique thing that mobile provides
Speaker 2: us that maybe Triple A just does not. It's scale
Speaker 2: right in democratization of actually access to the consumer. And two,
Speaker 2: I would say that the patterns of play patterns for
Speaker 2: consumers on mobile, or if it's my mom, your mom,
Speaker 2: they're not expecting a Triple A sort of like experience
Speaker 2: it needs to look and feel this way. They're much
Speaker 2: more open to, you know, sort of what a game
Speaker 2: will look like. And I think mobile game developers have
Speaker 2: really leaned into that in a way and said, Okay,
Speaker 2: a game doesn't have to look just like this, which
Speaker 2: I think has allowed us to really sort of open
Speaker 2: up play patterns.
Speaker 3: One thing that I know can be a little bit
Speaker 3: of a barrier to people who want to get into
Speaker 3: mobile gaming is saying, like there's a million micro transactions.
Speaker 3: I feel like I'm going to spend a lot of
Speaker 3: money playing this game in order to enjoy the game
Speaker 3: or to beat the game or whatever. So I'd like
Speaker 3: to know how you all, let scopely look at handling
Speaker 3: that what you give for free versus what's paywalled, and
Speaker 3: then also kind of a sub question about how you
Speaker 3: handle that when it comes to like younger players as well,
Speaker 3: because I know there's people who are like, I can't
Speaker 3: let me hip play this game. I don't know what
Speaker 3: they're going to.
Speaker 2: Spend on it. So yeah, yeah, I would say when
Speaker 2: it comes to your first question, I would say, we
Speaker 2: have a philosophy that anything you can pay for in
Speaker 2: the game, you should also be able to earn it,
Speaker 2: meaning you know, I mean, we're not going to block
Speaker 2: you from progress only through payments, right, Like that's that's
Speaker 2: a choice that a consumer makes, Like it's almost like
Speaker 2: a you know, a value for money or time for money,
Speaker 2: sort of like exchange right, Like, our view is that
Speaker 2: it shouldn't be the sort of pay to win sort
Speaker 2: of model. It's to be one that's really should be
Speaker 2: enjoyable to everyone. If you decide that, you're like, listen,
Speaker 2: I want to I want to be the best. I
Speaker 2: want to top the leader boards, and I want to
Speaker 2: be there first. I got want to do that first. Like,
Speaker 2: that's my that's my goal. You're a maximizer, Fine, then
Speaker 2: we'll give them the mechanisms to do that. That's their choice.
Speaker 2: But if for someone who is like to your point,
Speaker 2: like I will never pay. I mean, my mom's that way.
Speaker 2: She's like, I will never pay. I think she actually has,
Speaker 2: but she will tell me that, but I will never pay. Fine,
Speaker 2: you should still have a great pleasurable experience. So I
Speaker 2: think that's how we think about it. One is not
Speaker 2: better than the other. It's choice, right from a consumer perspective.
Speaker 2: And then apologies. Your second question was well again, oh.
Speaker 3: Talking about younger players and how you have to handle that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I would say first or foremost, if there's
Speaker 2: a game that we think, uh and or we see
Speaker 2: that is potentially resonating with kids, we take that very serious.
Speaker 2: And so typically we're always implementing some type of age game, right.
Speaker 2: I'll be honest, Like, if you think of my Monopoly Go,
Speaker 2: we didn't think the target audience at all was going
Speaker 2: to be kids. And not that we have a lot
Speaker 2: of kids playing a game. I'm not saying we do,
Speaker 2: but when you look at the data early on, we
Speaker 2: saw that there was actually some younger, you know, kids
Speaker 2: that were playing and we're like, oh geez, wow, And
Speaker 2: we responded to it very quickly, said, okay, we need
Speaker 2: to implement an age game right to make sure that
Speaker 2: we are not surfacing certain features in the game that
Speaker 2: would not be appropriate to someone of a certain age.
Speaker 2: So we take it very serious. We want to make
Speaker 2: sure that we are, you know, doing what's right by
Speaker 2: the player based upon their age.
Speaker 3: Going back to partnerships, talking about a different title from Monopolygo.
Speaker 3: This episode of the podcast will come out just around
Speaker 3: the Jurassic World release, and I know you guys have
Speaker 3: a big partnership coming up with Stumble guys, so i'd
Speaker 3: like to, you know, go into that a little bit,
Speaker 3: how that came about and another reason why you feel
Speaker 3: like that partnership is a good fit for the Scope
Speaker 3: Lee brand.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So excited to announce that we're collaborating with Universal
Speaker 2: Products and Experiences and part of their digital team on
Speaker 2: a Drastic World experience that's going to be coming to
Speaker 2: stumble Guys next month. That's awesome, super excited about it.
Speaker 2: We've been working with that team for for quite some
Speaker 2: time now. The cool thing about it is it's going
Speaker 2: to be timed with the release of the new film
Speaker 2: that's in the franchise, which is going to be Drastic
Speaker 2: World Rebirth. Super excited about that film film. I've been
Speaker 2: seeing a lot of the trailers. I definitely will go
Speaker 2: see with my kids, and that collaboration is going to
Speaker 2: basically be aligned with the launch of the movie, and
Speaker 2: we're going to The idea is that how we bring
Speaker 2: that experience to life for players and for consumers within
Speaker 2: the world of Stumble Guys. So we think it's going
Speaker 2: to be amazing. It's obviously going to give us ability
Speaker 2: to night a global audience that exists in Stumble Guys.
Speaker 2: You bring the iconic sort of Drastic World cinematic storytelling adventure,
Speaker 2: you know, drama. Like the idea that how we bring
Speaker 2: that all to life. We're super excited. We think we
Speaker 2: think the team is done on our side in partnership
Speaker 2: with the Universal team, an amazing job of doing. I
Speaker 2: mean that in a way that once again it's going
Speaker 2: to feel authentic and of the time when you think
Speaker 2: about the universe or the Jurassic Park franchise.
Speaker 3: Asking just in general the mobile gaming space, you know
Speaker 3: what scopely looks at in terms of continuing to own
Speaker 3: that area when there are constantly others getting into that game.
Speaker 3: Netflix is making a big push for that right now.
Speaker 3: They have a lot of really strong IP but there's
Speaker 3: only so much time that people have in a day,
Speaker 3: and there's already so many titles. So I want to
Speaker 3: know how you keep coming at people coming back to
Speaker 3: Monopoly Go, keep coming people coming. And then also when
Speaker 3: you look at developing new games, the ROI in that
Speaker 3: are you really looking at you know, we already have
Speaker 3: this good slate, let's invest in this, let's invest in
Speaker 3: Pokemon Go that we now have, or do you look
Speaker 3: to create new titles?
Speaker 2: Yeah, when it comes to your first question about how
Speaker 2: we bring them back daily, Look, I think this is
Speaker 2: a combination and really a tight combination of partship between
Speaker 2: both the game team constantly thinking about what's important to
Speaker 2: the game that we think is going to be interesting
Speaker 2: and fun and exciting, unique, right, inspiring for players. But
Speaker 2: couple that with the marketing team and the community team
Speaker 2: constantly talking to the actual player base. Now, it doesn't
Speaker 2: mean we do everything the players tell us, because obviously
Speaker 2: not everything makes sense, but I would say there's a
Speaker 2: great marriage between the two of how we bring those
Speaker 2: insights in from the consumers and from the players into
Speaker 2: the product team. The product team's constantly thinking about, you know,
Speaker 2: different inspiration that they get, not only from other games.
Speaker 2: I think that's something that games have done many many years,
Speaker 2: Like how do I take inspiration from either a game
Speaker 2: that's in the market now or a game that's it
Speaker 2: was in the market ten years ago that I loved
Speaker 2: as a child? Right? Are there elements of those games
Speaker 2: or mechanics in those games that I can bring forward
Speaker 2: in this game, but maybe reimagine in a new way.
Speaker 2: And then how do you couple that once again with
Speaker 2: insights Like that's that's something that's constantly going on, and
Speaker 2: we're I would say, always testing a b testing new
Speaker 2: features and functionality for players to see what resonates. I
Speaker 2: think that's also one of the things that is very
Speaker 2: unique to mobile games versus Triple A is that we
Speaker 2: have this ability to constantly and it's in our DNA
Speaker 2: to kind of test and iterate versus like say, this
Speaker 2: is what it is and that's what we're bringing the market.
Speaker 2: You know, if we think something's great and we go
Speaker 2: test it with like you know, basic consumers are like, eh,
Speaker 2: it's not really resonating. It's like, okay, we go back
Speaker 2: to the drawing board, right, and we get their feedback.
Speaker 2: So that's definitely I would say a big priority for us.
Speaker 2: And then on the second question again, what was it
Speaker 2: that again? Sorry?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's looking at the ROI for existing franchises versus
Speaker 3: developing a new game. You know, if I go explore
Speaker 3: a new game created by Scope Play, that's the less
Speaker 3: time I'm playing on Monopoly Go kind of thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we look we continue to build forever franchises.
Speaker 2: That's our big priority, right And that's why obviously the
Speaker 2: the Niantic acquisition with Pokemon Go and there are other
Speaker 2: franchise like Monster Hunter makes such a makes such made
Speaker 2: so much sense. We are always thinking about new opportunities. Now,
Speaker 2: it's not about we need to launch X number of
Speaker 2: games per year. That's definitely not the priority for us.
Speaker 2: It's more about, do we think there's a unique idea
Speaker 2: and opportunity that a creative team on our side is
Speaker 2: excited about that we think fills a need a void
Speaker 2: right from a consumer perspective, from a genre perspective. And
Speaker 2: do we have the right team, the studio team, the
Speaker 2: right development team that actually we feel like do an
Speaker 2: amazing job and bringing that to market. And so those
Speaker 2: two things are incredibly important for us, even if it's
Speaker 2: in a space that you could say is like maybe crowded, right,
Speaker 2: because there's other gains in the space. If we have
Speaker 2: a conviction around it, because we think we've come up
Speaker 2: a really unique sort of angle and an idea that
Speaker 2: a creative team is excited about, that we've sort of
Speaker 2: validated with consumers. And then we have a team that
Speaker 2: not just can build a game, but let's say I'm
Speaker 2: making it up, it's like an RPG, right, Let's say genre,
Speaker 2: what does that team have credibility? Do they have a
Speaker 2: history of building great RPG games that fans love. When
Speaker 2: we sort of bring those two things together, that's when
Speaker 2: we know, like, okay, that makes sense for us to
Speaker 2: invest in that project moving forward. Like I said, it's
Speaker 2: not about having a specific slate where we have a
Speaker 2: specific number of titles that we were launching every year,
Speaker 2: because once again, our job is to really grow the
Speaker 2: existing franchises we have. So for us, when we think
Speaker 2: about any new project, it's really an opportunity cost right,
Speaker 2: So we need to have really strong conviction that we
Speaker 2: think that that project has a big opportunity to actually
Speaker 2: really resonate with fans.
Speaker 3: Well, those are all my questions for you today, Eric,
Speaker 3: I just didn't know if there's anything else. Maybe you
Speaker 3: feel like our listeners would want to know about you
Speaker 3: all at this time, or something in particular we didn't
Speaker 3: get to.
Speaker 2: Yeah, look, I think I think we want our fans
Speaker 2: and consumers to know that we appreciate everything that they
Speaker 2: do when it comes to giving us their time and attention.
Speaker 2: We think it's fantastic, and you know, we just can't
Speaker 2: wait to deliver some amazing new experiences to consumers. We
Speaker 2: have some new things in the works, and obviously stuff
Speaker 2: that we can talk about now we'll see when it's written.
Speaker 2: But you know, we have more stuff that's coming and
Speaker 2: we're super excited about what that's gonna what that's gonna
Speaker 2: look like, and so look, obviously for anyone that's interested,
Speaker 2: just follow along, you know, follow us on LinkedIn, follow
Speaker 2: us on scopey dot com, and you'll you'll get more
Speaker 2: updates on everything that's coming.
Speaker 3: All right, we'll talk when you can talk about that.
Speaker 3: We'll talk when Monopoly gocrosses ten billion in revenue. So
Speaker 3: thank you for your time today, Eric sounds good, Take.
Speaker 4: Care, Thanks for listening. Be sure to leave us a
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