Brief:
- DreamWorks, the movie studio behind “Shrek,” “Kung Fu Panda,” “Madagascar” and “How to Train Your Dragon,” is letting fans interact with characters from the animated hit films in an action role-playing game on mobile platforms. “DreamWorks Universe of Legends,” which launches today, was created by animation studio Riva Group and software developer Firefly Games, per a statement made available to Mobile Marketer.
- Mobile user can choose single-player adventures or form teams with other players to test their real-time combat skills against each other. The game features more than 40 DreamWorks characters rendered in 3D, and players can choose backgrounds from their favorite movies.
- Firefly Games, which has offices in Los Angeles and Shanghai, designed the game to appeal to audiences in western and eastern markets. The game is available for iOS and Android devices.
Insight:
Mobile games provide film studios with another way to build on the public recognition of characters from hit films, and to develop a potential revenue stream from in-app purchases. Not only are mobile games easy to distribute with instant downloads from an app store, but they're also a way to reach younger audiences who are cutting back on other media like TV in favor of mobile devices via a format that they find enjoyable. Overall, the market for games on mobile devices including smartwatches is expected to grow 11% a year from $39 billion to $65.4 billion by 2021, according to a study this month from BCC Research.
DreamWorks isn’t alone among studios in creating mobile games based on animated characters. Vivendi, the French media giant, last month announced plans to develop a mobile game for “Paddington 2,” the sequel to the 2014 movie based on the popular children’s book. The game will be released later this year as the movie opens.
Marvel Entertainment, a unit of Disney, may have the most active roster of mobile games based on its thousands of comic-book characters that are being made into movies. Marvel in July announced a partnership with Fox-owned game developer Aftershock to create a mobile game based on Marvel characters, which include the Avengers and Spider-Man. Aftershock is also working on a massively multiplayer mobile strategy game for James Cameron’s “Avatar” franchise in partnership with Lightstorm Entertainment, VentureBeat reported.
