IP, Games, & The Future of Transmedia

Key insights

5 slides

Gaming's Role

Gaming is a critical transmedia channel due to significant consumer attention and growth.

Entertainment consumption increased by 12% during the pandemic, with gaming specifically seeing 30% growth.

Competitive Landscape

Netflix views gaming, particularly Fortnite, as a primary competitor for consumer time.

Netflix has explicitly cited Fortnite as a competitor that has historically outperformed its own streaming content.

Market Reality. Netflix has begun exploring gaming as a competitive necessity, explicitly citing Fortnite as a primary competitor for consumer time that has historically outperformed its own streaming content.

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Summary

Transmedia storytelling represents a strategic evolution in how entertainment companies leverage intellectual property by dispersing narrative elements across multiple platforms to create a unified experience. The primary thesis posits that while traditional media companies have historically struggled to integrate gaming into their broader narratives, the gaming industry’s massive scale and high user engagement make it an essential frontier for future growth. Successful transmedia requires balancing three core pillars: characters that drive narrative, convenience in delivering content, and community-building tools that foster deep fan connection.

The gaming sector currently commands significant attention, with industry revenues exceeding the combined totals of the music and film industries. Data indicates that during the pandemic, gaming experienced 30% growth, and younger demographics increasingly prioritize gaming as their primary entertainment activity. Despite this, many media companies continue to treat games as secondary marketing vehicles or simple re-tellings of existing stories rather than canonical extensions of their universes. While some titles like Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order have successfully expanded IP narratives, others have failed to sustain player bases, highlighting the difficulty of executing high-quality, narrative-driven gaming experiences.

Major media entities are currently adopting varied strategies to address these challenges, ranging from internal development and licensing to strategic minority investments in gaming platforms like Epic Games and Discord. Rather than pursuing large-scale, high-risk mergers, most firms are prioritizing partnerships that allow them to tap into established virtual gathering places. The future of transmedia lies in the ability of IP holders to weave complex, consistent narratives across gaming and traditional media, ultimately creating robust ecosystems that deepen audience engagement and solidify the long-term value of their intellectual property.