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Speaker 1: Welcome to Strictly Business, writy's weekly podcast featuring conversations about

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Speaker 1: the business of media and entertainment. I'm senior business writer,

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Speaker 1: TV and video games. Jennifer Moss Jill Fernx is the

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Speaker 1: chief executive officer and founder at game Fam, a metaverse

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Speaker 1: game developer and publisher that creates connected experiences for gaming

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Speaker 1: platforms including Roblocks and Fortnite, and well known brands like

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Speaker 1: Mattel's Barbie Crunchy Roles, My Hero, Academia, and most recently,

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Speaker 1: the band Coldplay. Ferens founded game Fam in twenty nineteen

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Speaker 1: following years working in strategy roles at Mattel and Ubisoft,

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Speaker 1: and after beginning his career as an art director working

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Speaker 1: on licensed consumer products for sports properties including the NFL, NCAA,

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Speaker 1: and NHL. His game design and producing credits include He Man,

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Speaker 1: The Most Powerful Game in the Universe, Star Wars, Rebels,

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Speaker 1: recon Missions, and Hot Wheels Rates, which has over one

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Speaker 1: hundred million downloads. Here to talk about the inner workings

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Speaker 1: of game Fam. A CEO Joe Farns, thank you so

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Speaker 1: much for joining me today, Joe, I really appreciate it absolutely.

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Speaker 2: Thank you for having me. Great to be here.

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Speaker 1: So I'd love to just start out pretty high level

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Speaker 1: here for those who might not be familiar about what

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Speaker 1: you guys do, if you can just start off at

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Speaker 1: the top.

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Speaker 2: What is gamecam Yeah, game fan is the leading professional

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Speaker 2: publisher of content for the Roadblocks and Fortnite platforms. We

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Speaker 2: are really a media network for reaching gen Z and

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Speaker 2: jen Alpha consumers that we run a huge portfolio of products,

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Speaker 2: with about one hundred thousand concurrent players playing our games

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Speaker 2: as we speak. We have multiple top games and top

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Speaker 2: genres on Roadblocks and a significant Fortnite portfolio as well.

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Speaker 2: We create business by both in app transactions where we

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Speaker 2: sell players various digital goods that they love and find valuable,

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Speaker 2: and we also build significant brand advertising programs for brands,

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Speaker 2: IP holders, theatrical campaigns, etc.

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Speaker 1: And then your background specifically, I'd love to get a

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Speaker 1: run down of that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I've been in the gaming and pop culture business

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Speaker 2: my entire career, so a little bit over twenty years now.

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Speaker 2: Started as a graphic designer on sports licensed T shirts

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Speaker 2: and posters, went back to business school, interned at Disney,

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Speaker 2: did a postgraduate internship a Nintendo, spent two years at

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Speaker 2: Ubisoft working on franchise and IP strategy, and then went

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Speaker 2: to MATEL doing franchise development for three years. After that,

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Speaker 2: I jumped into the startup world about ten years ago

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Speaker 2: to work on a Star Wars kids game as a

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Speaker 2: chief product officer, and then worked on a huge, huge

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Speaker 2: mobile game, Subway Surfers for a year as a consultant,

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Speaker 2: and then went back to MATEL as a consulting executive

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Speaker 2: producer on Hot Wheels video games, putting the Hot Wheels

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Speaker 2: brand into twenty games over the course of five years,

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Speaker 2: including some huge hits from Microsoft's Sports franchise and EPICX

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Speaker 2: Rocket League franchise EA's need for Speed. And it was

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Speaker 2: during those years consulting and doing some startups in my

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Speaker 2: other time that I became aware of the Roadbox platform,

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Speaker 2: which back then had I believe thirty million monthly active users.

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Speaker 2: Now it has eighty million daily active users. And I

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Speaker 2: was at a point in my career where I had

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Speaker 2: worked on so many great brands and ips, starting in

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Speaker 2: sports licensing doing NFL license posters, and then working at

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Speaker 2: Ubisoft on licensing out and doing strategy for Assassin's Creed,

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Speaker 2: and then being a licensee of Star Wars and helping

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Speaker 2: grow the hot Wheels gaming business and helping relaunch he

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Speaker 2: man and I said, I want to try to get

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Speaker 2: into making new and wild stuff, and I think Roadblocks

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Speaker 2: is the place to do it. I think the platform

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Speaker 2: is going to explode. All the fundamentals are there, and

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Speaker 2: I think we've only been surprised at how big it

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Speaker 2: has gotten and how big it is likely to continue

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Speaker 2: to get. Oh, I just lost you for real.

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Speaker 1: Now what is your day to day at game fam

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Speaker 1: What is your role now?

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Speaker 2: So? I'm the CEO and founder of Gamevam, and my

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Speaker 2: main focus every day is ensuring that we have the

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Speaker 2: very best products in the market from a digital quality,

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Speaker 2: production values, player engagement, player monetization standpoint. We've won over

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Speaker 2: thirty awards in the last three years, including Fast Companies,

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Speaker 2: Most Innovative including five thousand and numerous awards for our

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Speaker 2: campaigns and the quality of our products, and that is

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Speaker 2: my passion, is making sure that we do the very

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Speaker 2: best work in our field. If you look at the

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Speaker 2: top ten all time brand games on Roadblocks, which you

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Speaker 2: can see on a website called rome Monitor that we own,

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Speaker 2: you will see that game fan has produced three of

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Speaker 2: the top ten all time brand games on Roadblocks number

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Speaker 2: one Sonic Speed Simulator, which just crossed a billion visits,

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Speaker 2: and I'm sure I'll talk more about a few of

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Speaker 2: these as we go. Barbie Dreamhouse Tycoon, which is number

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Speaker 2: six despite having come out less than a year ago,

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Speaker 2: and then number ten Hot Wheels, the first Roadblocks game

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Speaker 2: we ever developed at our studio. And we also have

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Speaker 2: produced three of the top five concerts Roadblocks concerts of

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Speaker 2: all time number one Sweetie's super Bowl Concert, number three,

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Speaker 2: Chainsmokers number four, twenty four k Golden. So that is

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Speaker 2: really what gets me excited every day is continuing to

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Speaker 2: do the best work in the space. And when I'm

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Speaker 2: not doing that, I'm working on how do we build

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Speaker 2: brand engagement programs to help bridge the gap between Hollywood

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Speaker 2: and the traditional forms of distributing content and this new

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Speaker 2: world of gaming as media that is just growing every

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Speaker 2: quarter right now.

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Speaker 1: So with the current state of gaming and everything, I

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Speaker 1: guess covered Unreal Facts yesterday, Unreal Engine had some announcements made.

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Speaker 1: I want you to know your current take on what

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Speaker 1: the most exciting thing going on right now is and

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Speaker 1: then maybe the biggest struggle facing the industry at the moment,

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Speaker 1: The most exciting thing going on right now is the

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Speaker 1: ability for small teams to.

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Speaker 2: Make incredible products, and that was the founding thesis of

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Speaker 2: our company, is that using the technology that companies like

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Speaker 2: Roadblocks and UEFN or Epic in this case through their

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Speaker 2: UEFN platform, are delivering to developers, we can create the

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Speaker 2: next generation of franchises, and we can bring along the

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Speaker 2: previous generation of franchises into this new world and the

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Speaker 2: innovators in the creative and media space. That is the

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Speaker 2: thing that is the most exciting that is happening. And

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Speaker 2: we can see that the usage of Roadblocks specifically continues

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Speaker 2: to grow quarter over quarter as the content offerings continue

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Speaker 2: to get better and better. So if you look at

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Speaker 2: some of our games like SpongeBob Simulator that we made

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Speaker 2: with our partners at Paramount, you'll see graphics that are

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Speaker 2: probably about PS three level PlayStation three levels, so about

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Speaker 2: two previous generations on console. But if you went back

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Speaker 2: three years from now, you would see graphics that we're

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Speaker 2: probably closer to a PS one, right, So the graphics

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Speaker 2: of these engines are improving exponents, and as the graphics improve,

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Speaker 2: they're retaining users older and older, and that's what's driving

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Speaker 2: the growth of Roblox and of Fortnite right now, the

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Speaker 2: challenges are that, similar to what's happened with streaming, similar

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Speaker 2: to what's happening with TikTok, is that the traditional distribution

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Speaker 2: channels that we're used to in the media business are changing.

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Speaker 2: They're changing from a business to consumer standpoint to appear

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Speaker 2: to peer standpoint. So what we've done as a company

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Speaker 2: is we have been trying to get out ahead of

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Speaker 2: this to ensure that all of the beloved IP and

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Speaker 2: characters that we've grown up on for the last fifty

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Speaker 2: years will have an entree into this new world of

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Speaker 2: peer to peer distribution. And we've been setting up networks

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Speaker 2: of authentic native development talent where we can provide that

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Speaker 2: layer of brands, SAE, safety, of best in class production,

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Speaker 2: but get that authenticity of that on the ground creator community.

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Speaker 2: And those are some of the ways that we've been

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Speaker 2: able to achieve so much success in original development of

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Speaker 2: IP based games at this company over the past five years.

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Speaker 1: So let's talk a little bit more about IP and

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Speaker 1: game VAM. I know you'd already mentioned, but I'd love

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Speaker 1: to dive in deeper to Sonic and to Barbie in particular.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely two of my I've worked on so many great

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Speaker 2: projects in my career, you know, and you know not

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Speaker 2: to brag, but I had a chance to contribute, for example,

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Speaker 2: to the Forts Horizon three Hot Wheels expansion pack, which

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Speaker 2: was the number one Xbox exclusive on Metacritic back when

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Speaker 2: it came out. I won Editors Choice Awards for the

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Speaker 2: work I've done in the app Store. I've had so

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Speaker 2: many great opportunities and privileges to work with so many

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Speaker 2: great people, but to make our own hit products out

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Speaker 2: of the studio has been, of course, the biggest thrill

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Speaker 2: of my career. And Sonic Speed Simulator in Barb are

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Speaker 2: the two best examples of where we as a studio

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Speaker 2: dug in and put our absolute best efforts in place,

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Speaker 2: where we gave it everything we had in terms of

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Speaker 2: our creativity, in terms of polishing pixels, in terms of

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Speaker 2: designing game loops that retain and create value in thereby

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Speaker 2: monetized players, and those games have been just incredible in

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Speaker 2: terms of their of their success in these native platforms,

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Speaker 2: working against incredible competitors from you know, sixteen to twenty

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Speaker 2: five years old making games all day. Now, we're applying

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Speaker 2: that same push to my hero Academia. That's our next

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Speaker 2: big game that's coming up. So we're getting into the

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Speaker 2: anime space, which people in the know know if you know,

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Speaker 2: you know, anime is like the thing for gen Z

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Speaker 2: and Gen Alpha fans. It's been the thing for me

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Speaker 2: for over twenty five years. And I am not a

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Speaker 2: gen Z or Gen Alpha that's for sure. So it's

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Speaker 2: a area that we are deeply passionate about and place

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Speaker 2: to our strengths. But tell me what, what are you

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Speaker 2: curious about? Because I love to talk about these products,

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Speaker 2: So hashtag am.

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Speaker 1: Uh. You know when we were we last talked at

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Speaker 1: south By, you were doing a big thing on my

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Speaker 1: hero Academia. That's where that's where we actually first got

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Speaker 1: to talk about that project. So doing that, we're still

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Speaker 1: doing that. Yeah. So you know, one of the things

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Speaker 1: I love to talk about most when it comes to

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Speaker 1: gaming and IP is at the moment, you know, there's

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Speaker 1: a huge thing about taking gaming IP I bring it

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Speaker 1: into the traditional media space with TIL TV and film adaptations.

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Speaker 1: But here is a perfect example of the reverse and

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Speaker 1: using that existing IP. Now there's Sonic obviously went back

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Speaker 1: and forth. It contigues to but something like Barbie that

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Speaker 1: especially when you look at that and you don't always

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Speaker 1: know how that might work. Gaming has for a long

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Speaker 1: time been traditionally a mail space, and as female gamers

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Speaker 1: break in, there's different ways it goes about it at

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Speaker 1: different times. So when you're looking at IP that maybe

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Speaker 1: isn't traditionally either in the gaming space to begin with,

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Speaker 1: or something that you are with Sonic trying to reinvent

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Speaker 1: in gaming that has been done in multiple ways. What

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Speaker 1: are the two different ways you approach that an IP

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Speaker 1: that comes in and has not really been dealt with

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Speaker 1: that in the same way, and then another one where

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Speaker 1: you're trying to find something new to do with that IP.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely so, I've been working in a content strategy role

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Speaker 2: for geez about fifteen years now, whether it was at

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Speaker 2: whether it was during my MBA internship at Disney, or

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Speaker 2: whether it was as a franchise strategist at UBI Software,

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Speaker 2: a franchise development leader at Mattel and then running GameFan right,

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Speaker 2: So I'm constantly thinking about what is the fit between

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Speaker 2: it used to be taking gaming IP outside of gaming.

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Speaker 2: That's what I was focused on at Ubisoft when I

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Speaker 2: was consulting as an executive producer on Hot Wheels video

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Speaker 2: Games for five years. It was about how do we

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Speaker 2: take one of the world's best, maybe the world's best

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Speaker 2: toy brand and make it into a gaming brand. And

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Speaker 2: a lot of people said, a lot of a lot

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Speaker 2: of licensees that we spoke to and partners we spoke

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Speaker 2: to initially said Hey, this is just a toy brand,

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Speaker 2: This can't actually be a gaming brand. We knew that

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Speaker 2: that was not the case. Leadership at Mattel knew that

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Speaker 2: wasn't the case, but we had to find the right

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Speaker 2: story to tell. We had to find the right fit

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Speaker 2: for the brand. And I think when we look at

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Speaker 2: Sonic or Barbie or translating things into roadblocks because it

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Speaker 2: doesn't matter or Fortnite, it doesn't matter whether a brand

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Speaker 2: or ip comes from the gaming space or not. Roadblocks

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Speaker 2: in Fortnite are their own walled gardens of gaming content, right.

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Speaker 2: So I love Star Wars. I loved having a chance

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Speaker 2: to work on Star Wars in my career. But taking

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Speaker 2: Star Wars from theatrical to a great series like The

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Speaker 2: Mandalorian that requires a whole different mindset. And that's the

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Speaker 2: business that we're in. A game fan, is what is

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Speaker 2: that mindset when you take an IP from outside of

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Speaker 2: Roadblocks or Fortnite. It doesn't matter whether it's already a

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Speaker 2: gaming IP or whether it's an entertainment IP. In a

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Speaker 2: lot of ways, it still needs to be translated into

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Speaker 2: Roadblocks and Fortnite properly. So the first thing is should

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Speaker 2: this be its own game? And the answer maybe like

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Speaker 2: ninety nine plus percent of the time is definitely not.

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Speaker 2: For example, we're doing a campaign for a toy brand

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Speaker 2: called Hatchamle's right now in our hit social role play

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Speaker 2: game called Twilight Daycare on Roadblocks. Twilight Daycare on Roadblocks

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Speaker 2: is a game where everyone is in a daycare center

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Speaker 2: together and you can choose to play as a caretaker

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Speaker 2: or a baby. This is my favorite game portfolio of

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Speaker 2: our non IP game.

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Speaker 1: We'll be back with more from Game dam after this break.

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Speaker 2: If you're a caretaker, you go and find a baby

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Speaker 2: crawling around on the floor, which is another player, right,

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Speaker 2: they're all players, And then you pick that baby up

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Speaker 2: and then you can see the baby has needs. What

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Speaker 2: kind of baby needs do they have? They need to

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Speaker 2: be fed, they need milk, they need to take a nap,

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Speaker 2: they need to have their diaper change. The type of

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Speaker 2: needs you would expect from a human baby, and if

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Speaker 2: you're a baby, you kind of just watch the caretaker

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Speaker 2: meet your needs mostly pass it, but you can interact

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Speaker 2: with them. You can emoji, so you can put up

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Speaker 2: little hearts or little crying faces. You can actually fight

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Speaker 2: them if they're trying to not with your fists, like no,

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Speaker 2: no punching, but like if they're trying to brush your teeth,

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Speaker 2: you can close your mouth and make it hard for

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Speaker 2: them to brush your teeth. So you actually play these

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Speaker 2: mini games together where you need to cooperate. So it's

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Speaker 2: a really fun game. It's head over two billion visits

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Speaker 2: since coming out three years ago. We acquired it from

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Speaker 2: a native creator who then became an employee at the company,

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Speaker 2: and we've been running it successfully and we run huge

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Speaker 2: brand campaigns in it regularly, so we're running one for

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Speaker 2: Hatch Males right now. Hatchamles is such a cool toy brand,

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Speaker 2: but it doesn't necessarily have enough cachet or enough gameplay

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Speaker 2: to do a standalone game. But even if it did right,

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Speaker 2: the level of investment and the likelihood of it taking

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Speaker 2: off is pretty low on robots. If you look at

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Speaker 2: the row monitor chart of the top branded games you

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Speaker 2: will see after you get down past the top ten

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Speaker 2: to twenty games out of over three hundred we track,

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Speaker 2: a lot of them have zero players in them and

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Speaker 2: never cracked even two three four million total play sessions,

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Speaker 2: while Twilight Daycare has you know, minimum half a million

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Speaker 2: to eight hundred thousand visits per day going down three

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Speaker 2: years two billion visits total. So if you're trying to

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Speaker 2: build a campaign, you should not make your own game.

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Speaker 2: If you're trying to build an IP, then maybe you

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Speaker 2: should make your own game. We'll talk about that, but first,

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Speaker 2: you know, we've delivered huge programs. So for SpongeBob for example,

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Speaker 2: yes we have a SpongeBob game, but when SpongeBob is

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Speaker 2: doing their twenty fifth anniversary, we need to do more

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Speaker 2: than just to engage the SpongeBob players in that game.

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Speaker 2: So we built a cross game program for SpongeBob that

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Speaker 2: delivered tens of millions of engagements to hype SpongeBob's twenty

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Speaker 2: fifth anniversary. This is really smart marketing. This is the

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Speaker 2: right use of Roadblocks as a media network as well

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Speaker 2: as a gaming platform. So that's the first thing we evaluate,

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Speaker 2: is it should Is there even a business case or

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Speaker 2: a need for a standalone game, and almost always you

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Speaker 2: will be better off engaging roadblocks users in a predictable

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Speaker 2: and measurable way, then you will be trying to launch

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Speaker 2: your own standalone game and what is arguably the most

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Speaker 2: competitive attention economy in the world today. So that's part one. Now,

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Speaker 2: if you are Sognic or you are Barbie and you

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Speaker 2: are an IP, that really does make sense to potentially

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Speaker 2: consider a standalone game. But we're What we do is

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Speaker 2: we try to match the native genres, find native developers

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Speaker 2: who want to work with gamefam who know these genres

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Speaker 2: and who are passionate about the IPS, pair them with

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Speaker 2: experienced producers and brand leaders internally, and then go out

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Speaker 2: and make one or sometimes now even more than one

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Speaker 2: game at a time together. What we're advising a lot

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Speaker 2: of our IP partners now is don't take one shot

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Speaker 2: on goal. If you're going to take one shot on goal,

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Speaker 2: game Fan is by far the most successful company so

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Speaker 2: far in the space of doing that. But we believe

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Speaker 2: that what IP partners you need to do now is

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Speaker 2: we are buildings where we are creating a suite of

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Speaker 2: entrees into the platforms, and that that is very similar

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Speaker 2: to what Lego and Disney have been doing and with

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Speaker 2: Turtles teams Ninja Turtles announced yesterday on the Epic platform,

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Speaker 2: which is building little mini platforms for your IP to engage,

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Speaker 2: and that's the best way to get a hit as well. Right,

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Speaker 2: the serendipity of these platforms is too substantial, too noisy

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Speaker 2: to bet everything on just one game. Now. Where that

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Speaker 2: doesn't make sense to do is maybe within My Hero Academia,

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Speaker 2: where we're going to spend maybe up to two years

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Speaker 2: developing what we hope will be a super product and

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Speaker 2: a tech stack that we can use for years to

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Speaker 2: come for servicing My Hero Academic and potentially other ips

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Speaker 2: from those partners. Very specific genre there, anime, and we

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Speaker 2: can talk more about that.

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Speaker 1: That makes sense, yes, and let's let's talk more about

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Speaker 1: that right now, because I actually was wondering with some

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Speaker 1: something like Barbie and something that like Sonic it's more

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Speaker 1: of an evergreen eyep And then when you have something

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Speaker 1: like My Hero Academia where it's a continuing story and

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Speaker 1: there's lore, and there's there's new episodes and there's new seasons,

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Speaker 1: how the gaming part plays into that. What you guys

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Speaker 1: do in terms of canon what you guys talk about

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Speaker 1: about stories and working with the existing team building the

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Speaker 1: show to build a game alongside it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think actually I wanted to add one more thing,

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Speaker 2: if that's okay, to the previous question, which is to

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Speaker 2: just go a little deeper into Sonic specifically and Barbie,

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Speaker 2: because I think they're really important case studies on how

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Speaker 2: that process works. Right. So, with Sonic, we identified that

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Speaker 2: Sonic was a Sonic Sonics about Gotta Go Fast. We

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Speaker 2: found a subgenre on Roadblocks that we felt had not

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Speaker 2: been fully kind of developed to its peak potential from

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Speaker 2: a production value and game design standpoint, that had shown

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Speaker 2: some traction with players. We then brought in some developers

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Speaker 2: who had worked on that genre previous, who also had

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Speaker 2: to pass the litmus test of how much do you

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Speaker 2: love Sonic and frankly, we have some one of the

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Speaker 2: most knowledgeable people about Sonic in the world at the company,

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Speaker 2: which is its little It's amazing how deep their knowledge

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Speaker 2: of the Sonic lore is. And then from there we

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Speaker 2: were able to run through a beta testing process, validate

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Speaker 2: that users love the game, launched the game. The game

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Speaker 2: got up to the number two game on the platform

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Speaker 2: during its release window. The biggest launching Roadblocks history, and

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Speaker 2: the game is still the number one or number two

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Speaker 2: branded game on Roadblocks every day, competing with Barbie for

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Speaker 2: that title today. So we did the same thing on Barbie.

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Speaker 2: With Barbie, a lot of people thought, oh, maybe you

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Speaker 2: should make a fashion game or a role play game.

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Speaker 2: And since then the fashion genre has changed and there's

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Speaker 2: a massive fashion game now, but there's only one. And

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Speaker 2: we don't like to chase things where a genre consists

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Speaker 2: of one game as a content strategist. That is not

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Speaker 2: a good content strategy to me, right, you need to play,

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Speaker 2: You need to fish where the fish are. You need

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Speaker 2: to play where the players are. So with Barbie, we

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Speaker 2: know that Barbie has fashion, yes, role play yes, jobs yes,

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Speaker 2: but a lot of times people forget Barbie also has

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Speaker 2: the most famous single house in pop culture, the Barbie

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Speaker 2: dream House, and that house building is a great genre

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Speaker 2: on Roadblocks, right, So that's a one plus one equals

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Speaker 2: three opportunity. We analyzed and dissected the genre. We had

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Speaker 2: a clear thesis on what would make the Barbie game

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Speaker 2: pop off, and the Barbie Game certainly did, got up

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Speaker 2: to seventy thousand peak concurrent users at its release, it

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Speaker 2: became a top ten game on the Roadblox platform and

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Speaker 2: continues to be, as I said, the number one or

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Speaker 2: number two branded IP game on the platform every day today.

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Speaker 2: So that's kind of get a little more specific because

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Speaker 2: I think I spoke a little generally about it, which

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Speaker 2: I think is important for listeners to understand kind of

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Speaker 2: the meta strategy context here. But I wanted to get

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Speaker 2: specific with my hero Academia. An anime anime IP on

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Speaker 2: roadblocks has unbelievable potential. If you look at the top

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Speaker 2: twenty games on Roadbox at any given time, somewhere between

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Speaker 2: one third and half of them are anime themed games

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Speaker 2: where fans are taking anime ip and making their own

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Speaker 2: versions of those ips, and the demand for this type

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Speaker 2: of game is just incredible. This is an underserved player

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Speaker 2: base that is not having enough access to massively multiplayer

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Speaker 2: style of games. The reason why is a very good reason,

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Speaker 2: which is that the IP holders want only the very

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Speaker 2: best quality content associated officially with their IPS, and that's

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Speaker 2: an ethos that gamefam understands very well. Having worked on

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Speaker 2: huge brands myself throughout my career, I believe in that,

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Speaker 2: and I know how to guide teams to deliver against that.

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Speaker 2: So we set out to try to do what we've

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Speaker 2: done for Sonic and Barbie, but into the anime space

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Speaker 2: right now. And I think that as we continue to

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Speaker 2: grow here, we're going to see anime continue to be

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Speaker 2: a power force in US and international pop culture and

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Speaker 2: roadblocks and roadblocks, the roadblocks anime genre and the video

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Speaker 2: ecosystem surrounding it are a big part of why anime

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Speaker 2: is so popular right now.

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Speaker 1: Since working on them my here academia, have you had

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Speaker 1: other anime brands and IP approach you all about doing

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Speaker 1: the same thing or something similar?

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Speaker 2: We have been in discussions with anime brands and ips.

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Speaker 2: We love anime as people, and we love anime as

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Speaker 2: game developers because the player community expects incredible things from

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Speaker 2: these games, and that is a challenge that we get

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Speaker 2: up very excited every day to try to rise to.

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Speaker 2: So I think that what we find though, is that

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Speaker 2: overall the anime companies are very careful about working here.

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Speaker 2: They have questions about the nature of the fan made games.

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Speaker 2: They have questions about the level of production values that

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Speaker 2: the platform can deliver, and how the IPS may need

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Speaker 2: to be adapted to the platforms, and so we're really

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Speaker 2: in an education phase right now, using my hero Academia

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Speaker 2: as kind of a glowing example of what we believe

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Speaker 2: anime can and should be on the Roadblocks platform, and

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Speaker 2: when it is released, I believe it will be one

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Speaker 2: of the biggest products ever delivered to the Roadblocks platform

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Speaker 2: and something that we're hoping we will be able to

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Speaker 2: show more of in the coming weeks and months with

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Speaker 2: some new trailers and some new updates to the beta

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Speaker 2: game that we are working on.

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Speaker 1: In those conversations, what do you think really helped sway

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Speaker 1: and close that deal with country role to do it

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Speaker 1: and made them trust that you had this was the

433
00:26:14,880 --> 00:26:16,440
Speaker 1: right place and they used to wear the right hands

434
00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:16,919
Speaker 1: to put it in.

435
00:26:17,640 --> 00:26:24,280
Speaker 2: I think that our backgrounds, having worked at places like Mattel, Disney, Ubisaw,

436
00:26:24,760 --> 00:26:29,840
Speaker 2: Electronic Arts, Blizzard, that's the team we've built here. We

437
00:26:30,080 --> 00:26:33,320
Speaker 2: are best of the best group of veteran game developers,

438
00:26:33,359 --> 00:26:35,359
Speaker 2: and we've brought in a best of the best group

439
00:26:35,440 --> 00:26:39,040
Speaker 2: of gen Z game devs who grew up making and

440
00:26:39,040 --> 00:26:46,280
Speaker 2: playing Roadblocks games. We understand these ips, We play anime

441
00:26:46,400 --> 00:26:53,399
Speaker 2: games ourselves, and we have a deep level of respect

442
00:26:53,720 --> 00:26:59,159
Speaker 2: for not only the IP, but also for Japanese business culture,

443
00:26:59,200 --> 00:27:01,800
Speaker 2: which we've educated ourselves on. We've spent time on the

444
00:27:01,800 --> 00:27:05,920
Speaker 2: ground in Tokyo. We have on staff a Japanese translator.

445
00:27:06,400 --> 00:27:09,199
Speaker 2: So these are the things that I think over time.

446
00:27:09,600 --> 00:27:12,040
Speaker 2: And I won't tell you exactly how long it took

447
00:27:12,040 --> 00:27:13,879
Speaker 2: to secure the license, but let me tell you that

448
00:27:13,960 --> 00:27:19,240
Speaker 2: it was a process of building a relationship, educating them

449
00:27:19,400 --> 00:27:22,919
Speaker 2: on what roadblocks is and what our vision for my

450
00:27:23,000 --> 00:27:27,119
Speaker 2: hero academia is on roadblocks, and then building a really

451
00:27:27,240 --> 00:27:31,160
Speaker 2: robust process for bringing them along in the approvals process

452
00:27:31,200 --> 00:27:34,840
Speaker 2: in a way that they could be not only not

453
00:27:34,880 --> 00:27:39,880
Speaker 2: only find acceptable, but hopefully be extremely excited about how

454
00:27:39,920 --> 00:27:42,080
Speaker 2: we are doing it and what they're seeing from us.

455
00:27:43,240 --> 00:27:45,479
Speaker 1: Let's shift a little bit because I know there's something

456
00:27:45,520 --> 00:27:47,800
Speaker 1: that you're able to announce today and it has to

457
00:27:47,840 --> 00:27:51,280
Speaker 1: do with a totally different area and ip, there's a

458
00:27:51,320 --> 00:27:54,840
Speaker 1: collaboration you're doing with Coldplay. So what are you able

459
00:27:54,880 --> 00:27:55,920
Speaker 1: to tell me about that today?

460
00:27:56,520 --> 00:28:01,240
Speaker 2: Yeah? So excited about this one. Been a Coldplay fan

461
00:28:01,720 --> 00:28:04,240
Speaker 2: for many years, being of the right cohort to have

462
00:28:04,280 --> 00:28:07,760
Speaker 2: been there when Yellow and Clocks first dropped down the

463
00:28:07,760 --> 00:28:11,400
Speaker 2: scene as such major hoop hits all those years ago.

464
00:28:11,600 --> 00:28:16,840
Speaker 2: Everybody knows those songs and everybody's followed Coldplay over the years,

465
00:28:17,200 --> 00:28:20,159
Speaker 2: so we've been working in the music space for a

466
00:28:20,200 --> 00:28:22,639
Speaker 2: long time. We've done the concerts. We just did an

467
00:28:22,640 --> 00:28:26,399
Speaker 2: event for Share last year that was really fun and

468
00:28:26,760 --> 00:28:28,679
Speaker 2: successful to be a part of. And so for the

469
00:28:28,720 --> 00:28:32,480
Speaker 2: Coldplay event, they are getting ready to release their new record,

470
00:28:32,600 --> 00:28:38,600
Speaker 2: Moon Music, and they are smartly looking to reach gen

471
00:28:38,720 --> 00:28:42,360
Speaker 2: Z and jen Alpha gamers where they live, which is

472
00:28:42,440 --> 00:28:47,600
Speaker 2: on roadblocks. So we have built a four game cross

473
00:28:47,680 --> 00:28:52,280
Speaker 2: game quest. So these four games in total. One of

474
00:28:52,320 --> 00:28:54,640
Speaker 2: them is called Car Dealership Tacoon, the number one driving

475
00:28:54,680 --> 00:28:58,760
Speaker 2: game in robox history, for example. In each game, there's

476
00:28:58,760 --> 00:29:02,640
Speaker 2: a specific quest to go on that involves interacting with

477
00:29:02,960 --> 00:29:07,920
Speaker 2: iconography that we have translated from Chris Martin's notebook into

478
00:29:08,240 --> 00:29:13,360
Speaker 2: in game three D assets. So one is that, and

479
00:29:13,400 --> 00:29:15,880
Speaker 2: then during the course of going on the quest, we

480
00:29:15,960 --> 00:29:19,560
Speaker 2: will have a rotation of four songs from Moon Music

481
00:29:20,080 --> 00:29:23,440
Speaker 2: playing in the background that you can jam to. And

482
00:29:23,480 --> 00:29:25,880
Speaker 2: when you complete the quest, not only do you get

483
00:29:25,920 --> 00:29:30,000
Speaker 2: Coldplay specific rewards within each game, but there's also cross

484
00:29:30,160 --> 00:29:34,800
Speaker 2: platform avatar rewards that you can use forever to show

485
00:29:34,840 --> 00:29:39,120
Speaker 2: off your Coldplay fandom that are limited so they have exclusivity,

486
00:29:39,160 --> 00:29:43,040
Speaker 2: they have rarity, they have value to players. And when

487
00:29:43,080 --> 00:29:47,080
Speaker 2: we ran a similar program, for example, for share just

488
00:29:47,160 --> 00:29:50,200
Speaker 2: in one game last year, we had over half a

489
00:29:50,280 --> 00:29:53,960
Speaker 2: million players come through the experience. We had millions of

490
00:29:54,680 --> 00:29:58,240
Speaker 2: minutes of engagement and fun, and as we know, shares

491
00:29:58,640 --> 00:30:01,040
Speaker 2: Record did very well. I'd like to think we had

492
00:30:01,040 --> 00:30:04,680
Speaker 2: a part to play in that process. This is the

493
00:30:04,760 --> 00:30:10,719
Speaker 2: new YouTube, the new Instagram, or the old TV, whatever

494
00:30:10,760 --> 00:30:14,200
Speaker 2: you want to say. This is where the eyeballs are.

495
00:30:14,520 --> 00:30:19,480
Speaker 2: Brands and ips need to be where users, bands, players,

496
00:30:19,640 --> 00:30:23,720
Speaker 2: consumers are and right now for gen Z and gen

497
00:30:23,800 --> 00:30:29,400
Speaker 2: Alpha that is Roadblocks eighty million daily active users spending

498
00:30:29,440 --> 00:30:32,000
Speaker 2: an average of one hundred and forty plus minutes per

499
00:30:32,120 --> 00:30:36,840
Speaker 2: user per day, which is substantially more than TikTok at

500
00:30:36,840 --> 00:30:40,640
Speaker 2: one hundred and ten and almost twice YouTube at seventy

501
00:30:40,680 --> 00:30:44,560
Speaker 2: minutes per day. So this is something that's been bubbling

502
00:30:44,720 --> 00:30:47,520
Speaker 2: up for years. Robots is almost twenty years old. A

503
00:30:47,520 --> 00:30:49,920
Speaker 2: lot of people don't realize that I started on the

504
00:30:49,920 --> 00:30:53,720
Speaker 2: platform playing games and learning about it back in twenty sixteen,

505
00:30:54,440 --> 00:30:57,840
Speaker 2: made my first Roadblocks game in twenty eighteen as a developer,

506
00:30:58,200 --> 00:31:01,360
Speaker 2: and then started game Bam and twenty nineteen with the

507
00:31:01,400 --> 00:31:04,600
Speaker 2: intention of ridging the gap that I knew was going

508
00:31:04,680 --> 00:31:09,560
Speaker 2: to form between Hollywood and these and new user generated

509
00:31:09,760 --> 00:31:14,600
Speaker 2: gaming content. So people have not always understood what it is.

510
00:31:14,640 --> 00:31:18,000
Speaker 2: It's not as easy for someone who didn't grow up

511
00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:20,440
Speaker 2: on it as it is to get on TikTok and

512
00:31:20,640 --> 00:31:24,440
Speaker 2: watch them dances and watch them sketches and hopefully some

513
00:31:24,520 --> 00:31:27,040
Speaker 2: cute animal videos as well, because I really like those.

514
00:31:27,920 --> 00:31:31,880
Speaker 2: That's really easy. Anyone can do that. But to play

515
00:31:32,120 --> 00:31:35,240
Speaker 2: a three D video game in all roadblocks games take

516
00:31:35,240 --> 00:31:37,840
Speaker 2: place in three D environments. Essentially, there's no games like

517
00:31:37,960 --> 00:31:41,160
Speaker 2: Candy Crush or Clash of Plans that take place in

518
00:31:41,640 --> 00:31:45,840
Speaker 2: kind of fixed camera or top down or menu based games.

519
00:31:45,920 --> 00:31:48,640
Speaker 2: Everything is like Fortnite. Everything is in a three D

520
00:31:48,800 --> 00:31:51,640
Speaker 2: space where you're moving around as an avatar, and it's

521
00:31:51,720 --> 00:31:54,160
Speaker 2: mostly played on the phone. Over seventy five percent of

522
00:31:54,240 --> 00:31:57,360
Speaker 2: users are playing on their phones and less on PC

523
00:31:57,680 --> 00:32:00,600
Speaker 2: and console. The PC and console as well. But for

524
00:32:00,680 --> 00:32:03,600
Speaker 2: someone who didn't grow up playing the style of game

525
00:32:04,360 --> 00:32:07,560
Speaker 2: to understand it, you really have to get into it.

526
00:32:07,600 --> 00:32:10,480
Speaker 2: And if you look at the history of the last

527
00:32:10,520 --> 00:32:12,920
Speaker 2: five years and companies that have followed in game fans,

528
00:32:12,960 --> 00:32:18,320
Speaker 2: footsteps of people from outside of this native sixteen to

529
00:32:18,320 --> 00:32:21,160
Speaker 2: twenty five year old developer community trying to make stuff.

530
00:32:21,800 --> 00:32:25,520
Speaker 2: There have been very few successes to show for it

531
00:32:25,600 --> 00:32:28,560
Speaker 2: because people look at it and they think it's simple,

532
00:32:28,920 --> 00:32:35,080
Speaker 2: but it's actually incredibly complex. It's just a new language.

533
00:32:36,680 --> 00:32:39,600
Speaker 3: Thanks for listening. Be sure to leave us a review

534
00:32:39,760 --> 00:32:43,360
Speaker 3: at Apple Podcasts or Amazon Music. We love to hear

535
00:32:43,400 --> 00:32:46,520
Speaker 3: from listeners. Please go to Variety dot com and sign

536
00:32:46,640 --> 00:32:50,600
Speaker 3: up for the free weekly Strictly Business newsletter, and don't

537
00:32:50,640 --> 00:32:54,160
Speaker 3: forget to tune in next week for another episode of

538
00:32:54,240 --> 00:32:57,120
Speaker 3: Strictly Business