Does licensing stifle creativity?

Games developers often regard me with suspicion.

I know, you are right. How can this be?

They view me as the evil nemesis to their creative force, because I negotiate licensing agreements to bring brands from other categories into wireless content.

They proclaim, “Why are we licensing brands, when we should be coming up with our own original intellectual properties?”

They quote examples like Lara Croft, Sonic The Hedgehog and Final Fantasy. Each began as a videogame and was then licensed in the opposite direction: spawning movies and TV shows and duvet covers and toys and birthday cakes and so on.

Absolutely correct. Any healthy industry needs a mixture of self-created products and brands, alongside licensed brands.

Incidentally, if you think that you have launched a property in mobile, with the potential consumer following to support extension by licensing, please let me know.

I can introduce you to those companies that make all kinds of products (including cakes and toys), who might pay you royalties.

An analysis of the console games charts for 2004 reveals an approximate split of 50% games made under license (for example, FIFA and Tony Hawk’s Skateboarding) and 50% original brands (for example, Driver and Grand Theft Auto).

Wireless content, on the other hand, is dominated by licensed brands. A recent Vodafone top 10 games chart contained 5 licensed and 5 generic games - and none that could be described as original IP.

Why is that? Will it change?

It is mainly because, as an industry in this early phase, we need to grab the attention of consumers and help them to understand what type of entertainment they can expect.

It will change as the ‘tipping point’ of end-user involvement is reached. Also, as the value of the industry grows and becomes profitable for the companies involved.

Developers, operators and content providers will then have more enthusiasm for launching new content and original brands.

The successful ones will really appreciate and utilise the distinctive strengths of the mobile platform.