Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Strictly Business, the podcast in
Speaker 1: which we talked with some of the brightest minds working
Speaker 1: in media today. I'm Andrew Wallenstein with Variety. Star Trek,
Speaker 1: The Walking Dead and Wheel of Fortune are more than
Speaker 1: just iconic TV brands. Their intellectual property powering hit mobile games,
Speaker 1: and that is the stock in trade at Scope Lee
Speaker 1: in l a based video game business that has made
Speaker 1: a specialty of adapting from one medium to another. To
Speaker 1: discuss how this alchemy is achieved, we've got Scope Lee
Speaker 1: CEO Walter Driver here. Thanks for coming in. Walter, so
Speaker 1: tell us first about Scope Lee. How big is the
Speaker 1: company got? When did it start? Thanks for having me? Um. Yes,
Speaker 1: Scope is uh is about eight years old. We founded
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles, UM and it's now a very global
Speaker 1: business with operations all of the world. UM and yeah,
Speaker 1: we've built up publishing platform too, you know, transform digital
Speaker 1: free experiences into long term businesses. And we've adapted some
Speaker 1: well known pieces of intellectual property and some universes that
Speaker 1: people cared a lot about and give him an opportunity
Speaker 1: to engage within a new medium. UM companies seen really
Speaker 1: significant growth over the last few years. We grew revenues
Speaker 1: over fifteen x and sixteen quarters from the beginning of
Speaker 1: two thousand and fifteen to UH the Q one of
Speaker 1: two thousand nineteen, and it's publicly known that revenues are
Speaker 1: in the north four million dollars at the beginning of
Speaker 1: this year. UM. And we've done that by a launching,
Speaker 1: you know, a diverse range of products, as you mentioned, uh,
Speaker 1: some of some of the pieces of in electoral property.
Speaker 1: But we've created games also in partnership with the w
Speaker 1: w E, UM with Looney Tunes UM, and we've created
Speaker 1: these across a wide range of of gaming experiences, from
Speaker 1: massively multiplayer online strategy game like Star Trek to an
Speaker 1: asy grenois multiplayer board game like Yazzi. So we've had
Speaker 1: really a unique record of the last few years of
Speaker 1: of launching successful games across a wide range of categories.
Speaker 1: How do you figure out, though, what partners or licenses
Speaker 1: to go with, because when you start talking about Looney
Speaker 1: Tunes in w w E, it's all over the map.
Speaker 1: And so I'm curious, how do you figure out what
Speaker 1: you want to make into a game? What makes a
Speaker 1: good game? Yeah, So I guess at the core what
Speaker 1: scope LE is is A is a platform for personalized
Speaker 1: software based entertainment, right, And when we say that, I think,
Speaker 1: you know, for uh, you know, listeners of a variety.
Speaker 1: I think we believe that, um, you know, a huge
Speaker 1: amount of entertainment time, energy, and and revenues is going
Speaker 1: to move from passively consumed experiences to interactive ones. And
Speaker 1: one of the really powerful things about interactive experiences is
Speaker 1: that they can be personalized by each individual user and
Speaker 1: UM and also the creators of those experiences can can
Speaker 1: build technology and tools that help adapt that experience on
Speaker 1: a per user basis. So UM, depending on how you're
Speaker 1: playing the game, we can adapt things to pair you
Speaker 1: with people at your skill level or your stage in
Speaker 1: the life cycle of your experience inside of that game,
Speaker 1: UM and really customized the experience in a way that's
Speaker 1: more engaging for you. So we start with that publishing platform,
Speaker 1: and then we built content strategies on top of that,
Speaker 1: where we think, what can be a decade long plus
Speaker 1: UM thriving business that's gonna have really high levels of
Speaker 1: user engagement and monetization over a long period of time.
Speaker 1: And you know, we start with that concept and then
Speaker 1: we look at what are the opportunities and mobile gaming
Speaker 1: and the types of gameplay that we think we're best
Speaker 1: suited to pursue UM. And also we look at what
Speaker 1: brands really resonate with UM those types of players. And
Speaker 1: sometimes it starts with with an I P and a
Speaker 1: partner who comes to us and says, you know, we
Speaker 1: think we could you could do something great with Yatzi,
Speaker 1: which is the case in our partnership with Hasbro because
Speaker 1: we had already had success making dice games with Dice
Speaker 1: with Buddies. In other cases, we've approached you know, I
Speaker 1: P holders and said we have a great plan for
Speaker 1: what we could do with your brand on mobile, which
Speaker 1: was sort of how the Star Trek conversation started happening
Speaker 1: with s as interactive UM, and both methods have been successful. Really,
Speaker 1: what we're thinking about is, you know, what can what
Speaker 1: can people still be enjoying doing ten years from now UM,
Speaker 1: and how can we get buying that and create a
Speaker 1: world class you know, digital experience, you know, in that universe.
Speaker 1: I'm curious about the nature of the deal making with
Speaker 1: the CBS interactives of the world. I mean, like who's
Speaker 1: paying and who here are you just sort of you know,
Speaker 1: creating a service for them or is the value of
Speaker 1: the other way? Yes, So I think this the thinking
Speaker 1: around this has evolved a lot over the last few years, because,
Speaker 1: first of all, I think free to play games in
Speaker 1: the Western world are a very new business, right. This
Speaker 1: is really in the last decade this is UM started
Speaker 1: to happen. And so originally I think people thought of
Speaker 1: mobile game licensing is sort of an ancillary revenue stream
Speaker 1: for for traditional I pholders. And over the last you know,
Speaker 1: even five years, I think that thinking has evolved dramatically.
Speaker 1: And we're fortunate to work with some partners who have
Speaker 1: been really strategic and how they think about UM the
Speaker 1: digital expressions of their brand and and a lot of
Speaker 1: those groups are now thinking, hey, you know, if we
Speaker 1: own something people care about, what is uh, what is
Speaker 1: the long term digital experience where people can come every
Speaker 1: day and spend you know a lot of time engaging
Speaker 1: with this universe and make it really their own personal
Speaker 1: experience UM. And so that conversation has evolved much more
Speaker 1: from a traditional licensing and the revenue conversation to a
Speaker 1: more strategic partnership oriented one. So we've looked for partners
Speaker 1: that kind of share our vision around aligned interests of hey,
Speaker 1: how do we go build the biggest business around Star
Speaker 1: Trek on mobile together possible? And then we customize the
Speaker 1: economic relationship to promote you know, long term alignment of
Speaker 1: our interests. And so in some cases, um, you know,
Speaker 1: their primary goals are to uh, to really introduce that
Speaker 1: brand to new audiences, and sometimes it's to cater to
Speaker 1: existing core audience. Sometimes it's usually a combination of both,
Speaker 1: UM and you know, also to uh, you know, to
Speaker 1: have a very profitable business in its own right, but
Speaker 1: one that is also synergistic with everything else they're doing
Speaker 1: with those brands. I'm curious how you look at entertainment
Speaker 1: space in general though, in terms of the exploitation potential
Speaker 1: of all the i P that's sitting there, both current
Speaker 1: and past. Is it is it is it an over
Speaker 1: harvested world or is it actually under exploited? Is there
Speaker 1: a sense of that? Yeah? I think for for people
Speaker 1: who work in traditional media industries, it's surprising to understand
Speaker 1: just how big gaming is. Right. Um, In two thousand
Speaker 1: and eighteen, you know, gaming was estimated to be a
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty billion dollar industry, growing you know, double
Speaker 1: digits uh. And according to the US Chamber of Commerce
Speaker 1: in two thousand and seventeen, gaming was actually bigger than books, movies, music,
Speaker 1: and spot services combined. Huge. Um, it's huge, and it's
Speaker 1: becoming more and more mainstream every day. I mean, there's
Speaker 1: two point four billion gamers out there, which is exponentially
Speaker 1: more than they were even five to ten years ago.
Speaker 1: Because you know, if you think about it, the gaming
Speaker 1: audience in the West used to be sort of limited
Speaker 1: to people who own a console gaming device or people
Speaker 1: who are PC gamers, and hence that being a gamer
Speaker 1: was like part of your identity, right it was there
Speaker 1: were somebody who did that or you weren't. And now
Speaker 1: everybody has a gaming device with them twenty four hours
Speaker 1: a day with with smartphones, um. And so it's a
Speaker 1: much much bigger industry. And I think people who own
Speaker 1: things people care about want to have an always on
Speaker 1: living ecosystem around their brands that people can can come
Speaker 1: in and engage with and the way that they care
Speaker 1: about most. And so I think, you know, it's it's
Speaker 1: really like one of the most fertile forms of media
Speaker 1: in terms of how fast it's growing and how many
Speaker 1: more people are coming into this space and becoming you know,
Speaker 1: gamers every day. So I get how big the business is,
Speaker 1: but what I'm curious is is how it relates to
Speaker 1: entertainment in terms of the opportunity there. Do you see
Speaker 1: that there's hundreds of entertainment properties that you could be
Speaker 1: making into games and these damn entertainment companies just are
Speaker 1: moving fast enough where it's like, actually, there's not much
Speaker 1: out there, And well, I think we're we're very selective
Speaker 1: about our partnerships, right We're both looking for great brands
Speaker 1: and an audience as that care a lot about those brands,
Speaker 1: and also where we can create we have confidence we
Speaker 1: can create a really world class experience. Um and then
Speaker 1: we're also looking for partners who you know, have a
Speaker 1: shared vision of what we're trying to accomplish. And so
Speaker 1: there there are a lot of those opportunities. They're not hundreds,
Speaker 1: and it's it's also not like we're at the end
Speaker 1: of the list of things that would would make a
Speaker 1: lot of sense. So I think there's a lot of
Speaker 1: opportunity for us to to continue to bring new uh
Speaker 1: new I p s into interactive mobile experiences, but we're
Speaker 1: also going to create original universes as well. So UM,
Speaker 1: while we've had more success probably in transforming things people
Speaker 1: already care about into into digital free to play experiences,
Speaker 1: UM will also probably create original worlds and we may
Speaker 1: see those go from mobile first to other forms of
Speaker 1: media in the future, and it'll be interesting to see
Speaker 1: UM that transition. So uh, you know, I'm getting a
Speaker 1: picture here of the dynamic between you guys and the
Speaker 1: entertainment industry, But I want to know where the leverage is.
Speaker 1: In other words, is it companies like yours that are
Speaker 1: lining outside the studio doors or is it the studio
Speaker 1: executives lining outside your doors? In terms of getting these
Speaker 1: games made. Yeah, I mean it's an organic process and
Speaker 1: it's happened in both directions. There's certainly people who approach
Speaker 1: us all the time with ideas and and properties that
Speaker 1: they would like us to make a mobile game. We
Speaker 1: we do turn most of those UM down because we
Speaker 1: are super selective about our partnerships UM and sometimes we
Speaker 1: see something that an I P holder isn't thinking about
Speaker 1: or is not top of mind for them. But as
Speaker 1: soon as we approach them in our you know, articulate
Speaker 1: our vision for it, they're like that makes a lot
Speaker 1: of sense. So I would say the conversations have been
Speaker 1: pretty easy around the market opportunity, whether people are approaching
Speaker 1: us or we're approaching them. UM, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: receptivity from the traditional entertainment industry around gaming, and I
Speaker 1: think what what a lot of those executives understand is
Speaker 1: it's a very different business and while it's also media,
Speaker 1: it's it's a different business model and requires a totally
Speaker 1: different set of skills, and so most of them are thinking, hey,
Speaker 1: we need to find great partners to approach this with
Speaker 1: UM and scope is really differentiated itself in that regarding me,
Speaker 1: we've want six consecutive mobile gaming franchises that will achieve
Speaker 1: over a hundred million dollars of lifetime revenues, which is
Speaker 1: pretty unique across a wide range of ips and gameplay.
Speaker 1: So everyone from Discovery to Netflix in recent months have
Speaker 1: signaled their stretching into the gaming business. Do you think
Speaker 1: that gaming related revenues are going to become more and
Speaker 1: more central to media companies or is it really no
Speaker 1: different than what it's always been going back years Because
Speaker 1: the relationship between entertainment video game companies has been there
Speaker 1: for decades. I just think it's changed the law. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think traditional media executives are understanding how fast gaming
Speaker 1: is growing and how mainstream it's becoming, but they're also
Speaker 1: understanding that in many cases you need to really be
Speaker 1: hyper focus and specialized on being able to execute on
Speaker 1: that front. And so I think right now most of
Speaker 1: our conversations with media companies are about how do they
Speaker 1: go to direct to consumer and and optimize their direct
Speaker 1: consumer strategy and scope plays kind I'm operating on a
Speaker 1: different actor because we think that they're really exciting evolution
Speaker 1: is going to be providing directed by consumer experiences, and
Speaker 1: by that I mean that that UM software has disrupted
Speaker 1: a lot of different industries over the last decade, and
Speaker 1: it's disrupting media in a in a pretty straightforward way,
Speaker 1: as people are using software to deliver traditional media to
Speaker 1: people in new and exciting ways UM. But I think
Speaker 1: the next revolution is going to be that the software
Speaker 1: becomes the entertainment. And if you have UH an entertainment
Speaker 1: experience that is dynamic, then people can it can adapt
Speaker 1: to the way people are using it, and the users
Speaker 1: can direct their own experience, and that allows people to
Speaker 1: have a really personalized experience. It feels unique to them.
Speaker 1: That has a lot of value. And also you can
Speaker 1: personalize the business model on a per user basis. So
Speaker 1: all of our games are free to play. UM. You
Speaker 1: have unlimited access to the game for free. UH. And
Speaker 1: people choose to invest in their experience, usually by buying
Speaker 1: virtual currency, which they can use to you know, enhance
Speaker 1: their experience in a totally self directed way. UM. And
Speaker 1: we find that people really like being able to decide
Speaker 1: how much UH they want to spend it on what
Speaker 1: cadence they want to spend it on. Well, you talk
Speaker 1: about virtual currency, and of course the name Fortnite comes
Speaker 1: to mind. You can't have a gaming conversation of course,
Speaker 1: of course out mentioning Fortnite. But I am curious. You
Speaker 1: know how a company like scope Lee looks at that
Speaker 1: success and you know or do you guys feel that
Speaker 1: the business strategy that you're currently pursuing could set you
Speaker 1: up for that level of success or is that just
Speaker 1: a completely different thing that Fortnite is doing what Epic
Speaker 1: Games is doing. Yeah. No, we're super excited about Fortnite
Speaker 1: and its impact on on both the gaming industry and
Speaker 1: UM on players and and people's perception of gaming I
Speaker 1: think it's been a real, um transformative moment in terms
Speaker 1: of how you know, gaming being part of the zeitgeist
Speaker 1: and and really becoming incredibly mainstream. And I think that's
Speaker 1: attracted a lot of interest from uh, you know, people
Speaker 1: in the traditional media as well as investors and and
Speaker 1: you know other gaming companies who are thinking about, you know,
Speaker 1: how big the opportunity is here. So I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: it has catalyzed more interests in the space. We saw
Speaker 1: twenty two billion dollars of him and A activity and
Speaker 1: gaming in two thousand eighteen and another five and a
Speaker 1: half billion of investment in gaming last year. So um,
Speaker 1: I think it's catalyzed a lot of interest in this space.
Speaker 1: And I think what is unique about Fortnite was that
Speaker 1: it was um cross platform and free from day one,
Speaker 1: and so it was able to reach users on a
Speaker 1: lot of different devices. Um and they built a great
Speaker 1: experience that was really broad and in a new category
Speaker 1: battle Royale games that is probably a twenty billion dollar
Speaker 1: industry this year that didn't exist three years ago. And
Speaker 1: so UM it shows I think, you know how they're
Speaker 1: gonna be new categories of gaming that are created in
Speaker 1: very short periods of time that are bigger than entire
Speaker 1: segments of media within a couple of years um. And
Speaker 1: it also shows this convergence of devices and and business models.
Speaker 1: So traditionally console games used to pay sixty dollars to
Speaker 1: buy the game upfront and then there would be a
Speaker 1: sequel two years later. Fortnight is a free to play
Speaker 1: game that is available on consoles but also on mobile
Speaker 1: and and we think the future of interactive entertainment is
Speaker 1: going to be giving people, you know, the experience they
Speaker 1: want on whatever device they want, whenever they want, at
Speaker 1: whatever price point they want. Um. And you know, Fortnite
Speaker 1: was one of the first products that really delivered on
Speaker 1: that proposition. So clearly there's tremendous upside to be had
Speaker 1: being in the gaming business. But you know, you also
Speaker 1: seem to think I also seem to think that when
Speaker 1: I hear about companies that are doing well in the
Speaker 1: gaming business, that there have been some that they're flying
Speaker 1: high today and then they fall tomorrow. Becomes sorry, because
Speaker 1: the trends seemed to change so dramatically and so quickly.
Speaker 1: So how does the company like Scope ly avoid you know,
Speaker 1: being the flavor of the month. Yeah, I think historically
Speaker 1: when people thought about the gaming space, they thought, you know,
Speaker 1: is it are these durable, long term revenue streams, right?
Speaker 1: And obviously in a in a purchase to play environment
Speaker 1: where somebody is paying sixty dollars for a game upfront, UH,
Speaker 1: it looks more like the movie business, where there's a
Speaker 1: lot of money made in the first weekend after after
Speaker 1: a launch UM, and so the revenues are not as
Speaker 1: consistent and predictable. UM. What we've seen is a really transformal,
Speaker 1: transformational evolution in the business model towards free live services UM.
Speaker 1: And so those live services are really like living ecosystems
Speaker 1: where everyday player can come in and different things are
Speaker 1: happening in the game UM, and new features are being
Speaker 1: released every few weeks, and the ecosystem is evolving very dramatically.
Speaker 1: And so these are almost more like theme digital playgrounds
Speaker 1: than they are traditional games. And that has created um,
Speaker 1: you know, much longer term user engagement and so UM
Speaker 1: we're seeing that. The other reason the gaming is attracting
Speaker 1: so much investment lately because people have underestimated how durable
Speaker 1: these franchises are in a live service model. UM. The
Speaker 1: same way we've seen a lot of software companies going
Speaker 1: from from licensing fees to software as a service. You
Speaker 1: see the same thing and gaming and how it's a
Speaker 1: really attractive business mode all if you can create a
Speaker 1: durable um uh service for players that they can pay
Speaker 1: for over time. And we see it in our products.
Speaker 1: Um So, our dice franchise Yachtzi and Dice with Buddies
Speaker 1: is our oldest franchise's eight years old and achieve record
Speaker 1: revenues last quarter. So you can see these things growing
Speaker 1: eight years in um That's something that I think is
Speaker 1: is new for people as they look at this space
Speaker 1: and understand that the things that these businesses can grow
Speaker 1: for a long period of time. And also when you're
Speaker 1: talking about you know, you use the term experience and
Speaker 1: it's not just a game. It just makes me wonder
Speaker 1: whether we're going to see sort of different kinds of
Speaker 1: hybrid forms of entertainment and gaming. And there's been some
Speaker 1: interesting experiments along the way, but you know, you guys
Speaker 1: are traditionally taking I P from entertainment that's already been
Speaker 1: out there, but have you thought about what happens of
Speaker 1: entertainment and the game launched at the same time. I
Speaker 1: think we'll see all fla verson of that happening moving forward.
Speaker 1: And we do talk a lot about experiences because I
Speaker 1: think the other thing is we don't sell games, right,
Speaker 1: the games are free, and we don't sell content either.
Speaker 1: The content is you know, we have unlimited access to games.
Speaker 1: What we offer people a chance to do is invest
Speaker 1: in a personalized experience and uh, and that's just a
Speaker 1: different mindset around around media, is that, hey, we we
Speaker 1: created this world for you to come in and customize
Speaker 1: and and invest in however however you want. And so UM,
Speaker 1: I think that is leading to lots of new forms
Speaker 1: of gameplay and frankly blurring the line between what is
Speaker 1: a game and what is an interactive experience. And we've
Speaker 1: we've already seen that with you know products and interactive fiction.
Speaker 1: Right is it is it a story if you're choosing
Speaker 1: your own adventure and paying to choose different routes, or
Speaker 1: is it a game? Right? It's it's really blurring the lines.
Speaker 1: And I think we'll continue to see more things that
Speaker 1: are um broader than than traditional console or PC gaming, UM,
Speaker 1: that are increasingly mainstream experiences for people. Who knows, maybe
Speaker 1: by ten years from now, we'll see you know, a
Speaker 1: show like West World becomes an actual kind of product
Speaker 1: out there's something that really blurs the real and the virtual. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I think I think there will be uh,
Speaker 1: you know, digital interactive versions of things that that people
Speaker 1: care about are gonna be you know, manifesting themselves in
Speaker 1: a lot of different formats and will continue to see
Speaker 1: innovation on that as this becomes increasingly central to people
Speaker 1: who own intellectual properties overall business strategy. So your usage
Speaker 1: of t V I P isn't your only Hollywood connection.
Speaker 1: You've got some interesting investors from this world as well,
Speaker 1: So talk about who's in your camp these days and
Speaker 1: what your investment picture is looking like going forward. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So Scope Lee is raised two and or sixty million
Speaker 1: dollars from both venture capitalists and individuals UM and we've
Speaker 1: start to bring people in that we thought understood our business,
Speaker 1: understood where media is headed. And we have a number
Speaker 1: of uh investors that have been with us, you know,
Speaker 1: since the early days, like Evolution Media, which has made
Speaker 1: a lot of investments in digital media space, Great Craft,
Speaker 1: which is an l a New York based firm that's
Speaker 1: kind of focused on digital media UM and then we've
Speaker 1: seen you know, a lot of individuals that are interested
Speaker 1: in this space that come from UM, you know, traditional
Speaker 1: media world. So there are a number of UM executives
Speaker 1: from from entertainment that have invested personally over the years,
Speaker 1: and we've kind of sought to bring people in that
Speaker 1: we thought UM might be good sources of wisdom, you
Speaker 1: know who from and farther down the path in these
Speaker 1: other forms of media. As we think about how this
Speaker 1: landscape is going to evolve, we think probably there will
Speaker 1: be some key learnings from veterans of other forms of
Speaker 1: media and these There is something to having your company
Speaker 1: here in Los Angeles. I know you've got a new
Speaker 1: headquarters opening up in Culver City. We do. Yeah, We've
Speaker 1: been growing really rapidly and we are moving into a
Speaker 1: new space and the platform in Culver City. Culver City
Speaker 1: is a very active area right now for high growth
Speaker 1: companies in the media space UM. And we we are
Speaker 1: based in l A for a reason. While we have
Speaker 1: operations all over the world. We have offices in Barcelona
Speaker 1: on a, UM in Dublin, multiple studios across Europe and
Speaker 1: in North and South America. UM our headquarters in Los
Speaker 1: Angeles for a reason because I think l A is
Speaker 1: always excelled at creating um you know, cultural phenomenon and
Speaker 1: experiences that make people feel something, and now we're just
Speaker 1: using technology as means to deliver that that um you know,
Speaker 1: cultural experiences. And I think it's been a place where
Speaker 1: we can attract talent that understands media, technology, gaming, um
Speaker 1: and how to build things that are relevant to large audiences.
Speaker 1: And so it's been a great place for us to
Speaker 1: be when we frankly, when we started the company, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of pressure on us to be in San Francisco,
Speaker 1: and I think at this point everyone sees that we're
Speaker 1: more advantaged by being in Los Angeles. And in terms
Speaker 1: of the shape of your company, what's interesting is you
Speaker 1: obviously you've got sort of your core operations, but then
Speaker 1: there's sort of this loose federation of other studios working
Speaker 1: on games, but they're not You're not owned and operated.
Speaker 1: So talk through what that is in the logic behind Yeah. So,
Speaker 1: as I said, the kind of core building block of
Speaker 1: scopeally was the technology and business platform to turn any
Speaker 1: digital experience into a bigger business and and to personalize
Speaker 1: those experiences on per user basis, and then we build
Speaker 1: these content strategies around which types of games that we
Speaker 1: want to be making, and then we've just approached it,
Speaker 1: you know, frankly, the same way a lot of people
Speaker 1: and the entertainment industry of approach things, who would be
Speaker 1: the best people to make this product, both in terms
Speaker 1: of the scope of the employees that would be participating
Speaker 1: in that, as well as through partnerships, and so we've
Speaker 1: struck in through those as as you know, studios that
Speaker 1: we own a hundred percent of studios that we make
Speaker 1: minority investments in that make games on our platform UM
Speaker 1: and in partnership with us or a long term commercial relationships.
Speaker 1: So we've been more dynamic than a lot of other
Speaker 1: gaming companies that have tended to only make games at
Speaker 1: studios that are owned and operated with every you know, uh,
Speaker 1: you know participant in that project being an employee of
Speaker 1: the company. And we feel like, um, that's pretty limiting,
Speaker 1: and this dynamic and ecosystem is as we would like,
Speaker 1: and so we want to partner with UM teams where
Speaker 1: they can augment our capabilities and where the combination of
Speaker 1: the two is more powerful than we would be on
Speaker 1: our own. So we do own a quite quite a
Speaker 1: few studios, but we're also open to minority investments or
Speaker 1: long term partnerships for us as about creating the best
Speaker 1: consumer experience as possible with partners we're alygn with for
Speaker 1: the long term. So if it makes sense, you guys
Speaker 1: could be acquiring certain properties. It's just not necessarily a
Speaker 1: big directive, no, we I mean we already are right so.
Speaker 1: Um So, Actually, recently we acquired Digit Game Studios in Dublin,
Speaker 1: which was the studio that we had a minority investment
Speaker 1: in where we co developed Star Trek Fleet Command, which
Speaker 1: we launched late last year. It's been an extremely successful,
Speaker 1: uh first foray into massively multiplayer online strategy games. UM.
Speaker 1: I mean it's crazy levels of engagement and the average
Speaker 1: day ex users playing sixty hours a month. Um really
Speaker 1: really uh. People are very passionate about the game, about
Speaker 1: that universe, uh uh. And it's been a very successful
Speaker 1: partnership with Digit where we were minority investors, and we
Speaker 1: recently acquired a hundred percent of the company um just
Speaker 1: a couple of months ago. And so we'll continue, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, to acquire companies invest in them. Some of
Speaker 1: those investments may lead to majority um acquisitions, but you know,
Speaker 1: some some teams want to retain their independs and what
Speaker 1: would prefer to have a long term minority investment, And
Speaker 1: we're open to that kind of arrangement as well. We're
Speaker 1: relatively agnostic as long as we're working with great teams
Speaker 1: to produce great products, and we feel really aligned for
Speaker 1: the long term. Um, you know, with where we're going
Speaker 1: as a business. You mentioned Star Trek and massive multiplayer,
Speaker 1: and it seems like you guys are trying a lab,
Speaker 1: trying out a lot of different genres. Is there a
Speaker 1: genre of gaming out there that you guys have not
Speaker 1: gotten to yet that interests you that you may eventually
Speaker 1: get to. Well, I think we have a lot of opportunities.
Speaker 1: When we started the business, UM, we were really focused
Speaker 1: on what we call casual games, which are really you know,
Speaker 1: very mainstream, large audience types of games, and really making
Speaker 1: them more social, collaborative, and competitive, UM with products like YACHTSI,
Speaker 1: where um, you know, it's you can play you know,
Speaker 1: head to head against friends, you can compete in tournaments,
Speaker 1: you can play against the computer. Uh. And then in
Speaker 1: two thousand and fifteen, with the launch of the Walking
Speaker 1: Dead Road to Survival, we we took the sky Bound
Speaker 1: Walking Dead graphic novel and created a pretty competitive role
Speaker 1: playing game, UM. And so that was our first what
Speaker 1: are called mid core games in the industry that are
Speaker 1: really competitive. UM. You know, that product has been extremely successful.
Speaker 1: We estimated on the generate over four hundred million dollars
Speaker 1: in the first five years since launch, and so we
Speaker 1: successfully enter that category. And then we did several other
Speaker 1: role playing games, one in partnership with the w w
Speaker 1: E and two thousands seventeen and then late last year
Speaker 1: with Warner Brothers on Looney Tunes UM. And then and
Speaker 1: then as we mentioned, we moved into the massively multiplayer
Speaker 1: online strategy game genre last year with with Star Trek
Speaker 1: Fleet Command. And so between those three product verticals, we
Speaker 1: have huge opportunities to go deeper into those categories. So
Speaker 1: I think you'll continue to see US UM, you know,
Speaker 1: go deeper into those categories and will probably augment that
Speaker 1: with one or two other UM product verticals organically. And
Speaker 1: then we're also looking, UM, you know, pretty extensively at
Speaker 1: acquiring other teams that have already you know, developed expertise
Speaker 1: and build product market fit in an adjacent categories where
Speaker 1: we can help them further commercialized properties. Last question do
Speaker 1: you have a very clear vision of where scope He
Speaker 1: is going to be three five or more years out
Speaker 1: And you know, is there sort of you know, strategic
Speaker 1: philosophy or culture that you're sort of breeding at at
Speaker 1: Scope Lee that helps fuel that vision. Yeah. I mean
Speaker 1: we as at the core we see ourselves in an
Speaker 1: experience company, right and we're building digital experiences, um, for
Speaker 1: people on on a very large scale, and um, we
Speaker 1: want to be the best company in the world at
Speaker 1: creating long term digital experiences are directed by the consumer
Speaker 1: and puts the power in their hands to decide, you know,
Speaker 1: where they want to take that their experiences, and builds
Speaker 1: the technology and tools to respond to to where they're
Speaker 1: taking it and and become more personalized over time. And
Speaker 1: we think, you know, that's super exciting vision to to
Speaker 1: be the kind of leading directed by consumer media company
Speaker 1: in the Western world. Well, I to a Star Trek
Speaker 1: related company. I wish you to live along and prosper.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. I'm looking forward to seeing the
Speaker 1: scope Ley story unfold. Thank you for having me. This
Speaker 1: has been another episode of Strictly Business. Tune in next
Speaker 1: week for another helping of scintillating conversation with media movers
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