John Friend, head of Xbox Gaming consumer products, kicked off the first keynote of BLE 2024 with a presentation that provided an overview of the incredible breadth and scope of the global gaming industry, while a follow-up fireside chat with License Global’s content director Ben Roberts offered tips and tools for brands, licensees and retail partners wanting to explore opportunities in the gaming sphere.
Sharing some facts and figures from market intelligence company IDG, John stated: “Gaming is the largest entertainment vertical in the world, and it has been for some time. [It’s] larger than music and box office and North American Sports combined.”
According to IDG’s figures, the number of gamers worldwide is around 3.2 billion, with 100 million new gamers coming on board every year. Gamers come from every age demographic and walk of life imaginable, whether they’re Call of Duty devotees, Candy Crushers or daily Wordle players. John also stressed that the gaming market is a constantly evolving one. For Gen Z in particular, gaming is part of their everyday lives, and 33% of Gen Z players play games on multiple devices, from mobiles and PCs to consoles and even Smart TVs.
The number of hours people spend engaging in gaming is also on the rise, with the average being nine hours a week – more than double what it was five years ago. And that figure doesn’t include the time that fans are consuming content, watching videos, reading about games, or talking about them in the playground, John pointed out.
When it comes to designing products and experiences that resonate with gamers, it’s important to know why people play video games, John stated, but there are multiple other drivers, such as competitiveness, wanting to relax or connecting socially with friends (89% of Gen Z players report playing games with others), and understanding them is crucial.
With so many reasons for gaming, so many diverse audiences, and numerous, very different IP in Xbox’s portfolio, Ben asked John about the company’s consumer products strategy, and whether a bespoke approach was needed for each property.
“We are very much of the mindset that there should be ‘no matching luggage’, and we have to look at each set of fans and each set of franchises independently,” said John. “We have shared learnings and experiences we can take across them, but the key things are the guiding principles that I talk about with my team all the time: franchise first, fan first.
“In some cases recently we’ve really celebrated the heritage of the games. What we’re trying to do is bring to life that moment when people first fell in love with the game and celebrate that fandom from 20 years ago… In other cases, it’s more about collection.” John referred to Xbox’s collaboration with Youtooz for World of Warcraft collectables, produced to mark the 20th anniversary of the game and the launch of World of Warcraft: The War Within, as an example of consumer products that celebrate both of these drivers simultaneously.
“There are other titles coming up that I’m excited about that have heritage, but are radically different,” he said. “For example, Doom: The Dark Ages, the next iteration of the Doom franchise, is coming out next year. For this, we’re leaning into some of the aspects of the new franchise, like the Medieval setting, but also the inheritance aspect, which celebrates the fact that the Doom Slayer is an iconic character.
“We also have an amazing game, Avowed, coming from a studio called Obsidian. The game is set within the Pillars of Eternity universe, which fans have known about for a long time through PC games. And in that case, we’re focused on giving fans the ability to celebrate the fact they’re fully immersed [in the virtual universe]. Can we create flags and lean into some of the heraldry of the place, for example?”
Global hits like Call of Duty and Fallout may grab the headlines, but fans of ‘niche’ games are catered for, too. One example is Pentiment, a graphically driven, richly historically researched medieval mystery game from gaming studio Obsidian that John admits he originally considered “narrow”. However, the vinyl records Xbox has produced have sold out on its DTC platforms “three or four times,” John said, “and they keep selling because the fans love the game, and love it deeply.”
When it comes to selecting licensing partners, Xbox is looking for “partners who are genuinely learners and interested in diving deeper into gaming, but who also know their own audiences, because that’s where the magic happens,” John said. He referenced a successful collaboration with streetwear brand Culture Kings in Australia, which was driven by the insight that Culture King’s mainly teenage audience is “into the heritage of games that have been around for 20-plus years. Meanwhile, we know what’s coming up in terms of those ‘big moments’ that our traditional players are excited about. So, if you marry that with this audience of slightly younger people who are really into heritage gaming…”
Another hit for Xbox in the consumer products space has been Finsbury Foods’ Xbox controller cake. “When it first came in as an opportunity, I asked, is that really going to work? But ultimately, what Finsbury understood is that their cakes are literally about celebration, and one of the things people like to celebrate or share with people that they love is how much they love gaming. That’s an example of a partner having an insight in terms of the emotional connection, and us being able to connect that to our knowledge of what people associate with Xbox in a visual sense.”
Gaming franchises are “durable”, John concluded. With fans playing for an average of nine hours a week, which means nearly 40 hours a month, or well over 400 hours a year, “they’re alive all the time. It’s not like launching a TV series where you have to wait three years for a new season.”
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