Get Acquainted with Fremantlemedia's Video Game Company Ludia
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week 05 / 4 February 2016 GGAAMEME ON!ON! Get acquainted with FremantleMedia’s video game company Ludia France North America Luxembourg M6 acquires the American Gods’ BCE and Enex broadcasting rights to protagonist join forces eleven Euro 2016 matches unveiled week 05 / 4 February 2016 GAME ON! Get acquainted with FremantleMedia’s video game company Ludia France North America Luxembourg M6 acquires the American Gods’ BCE and Enex broadcasting rights to protagonist join forces eleven Euro 2016 matches unveiled Cover Montage Publisher RTL Group 45, Bd Pierre Frieden L-1543 Luxembourg Editor, Design, Production RTL Group Corporate Communications & Marketing k before y hin ou T p r in t backstage.rtlgroup.com backstage.rtlgroup.fr backstage.rtlgroup.de QUICK VIEW Acquisition of the broadcasting rights to eleven Euro 2016 matches M6 p.9 GROWING GAME-MANIA! Ludia American Gods’ p.4–8 protagonist name unveiled FremantleMedia North America p.10 RTL Group’s companies join forces BCE / Enex p.11 Launch of Game of Thrones marketing campaign Big Picture RTL II p.13 p.12 SHORT NEWS p.14 PEOPLE p.15 GROWING GAME-MANIA! Canada – 4 February 2016 Ludia Following the success of Ludia’s video game Jurassic World™: The Game, Backstage interviewed Alex Thabet, President and CEO of Ludia, about the company’s history, its business model and its plans for 2016 and beyond. “JURASSIC WORLD WAS THE COMPANY’S BIGGEST HIT. I THINK IT WAS KIND OF A PERFECT STORM” Alex Thabet, President and CEO of Ludia 4 Montreal-based video game company Ludia is a member of SOME OF LUDIA’S MOST POPULAR TITLES: the FremantleMedia entertainment family and its mission is to create and distribute cross-platform digital JURASSIC DRAGONS: FAMILY FEUD & WORLD RISE OF BERK FRIENDS games with mass consumer appeal. Founded in 2007 by experienced industry players, Ludia’s primary focus was to develop games based Platforms Platforms Platforms on well-known intellectual properties, iOS, Android, Amazon iOS, Android, Amazon, iOS, Android, Amazon, especially coming from the TV Facebook Facebook ecosystem. Downloads & highlights Downloads & highlights Downloads • Downloads: 24M • Downloads: 34.5M 10.5M And this is how the commercial • #1 on App Store • #1 on App Store in over 30 countries in 85 countries (2014) relationship with FremantleMedia • Top 10 grossing app began – through the licensing of The in over 50 countries Launched Launched Launched Price Is Right which was essentially 2015 2014 2014 the first property the company Price Price Price secured back in 2007. Alex Thabet Freemium Freemium Freemium recalls: “Bear in mind that at the # of languages available # of languages available # of languages available 10 6 English time Ludia was just a business on paper so it was a pretty tough exercise to convince a company like FremantleMedia to grant us the rights to one of their product portfolio consists of original and branded beloved properties, but we did agree to do so and properties including: Jurassic ParkTM Builder, that was essentially the factor that created the entire Dragons: Rise of Berk, Family Feud®, Where’s success of the company.” Waldo? and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? Following The Price Is Right and Chef Gordon Over the years the business model has evolved Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen, over the last seven considerably, from a retail-driven business to a years the company continued to release around digital distribution based business. Ludia’s business five games per year and now has more than 50 model closely followed this evolution to meet the games in total. Its innovative and high-quality needs of its audience. Today all of Ludia’s games GET A GLIMPSE AT THE JURASSIC WORLDTM: THE GAME Next > 5 are distributed via digital distribution channels. Jurassic WorldTM: The Game follows the success of Alex Thabet explains: “With the digital video game Ludia’s previous prehistoric game, Jurassic ParkTM emergence in some of the new platforms like the Builder, inspired by the beloved franchise. iPhone or Facebook, our model has changed significantly. Obviously now you’re not going to retail Jurassic WorldTM: The Game has been Ludia’s stores to buy a game, you’re actually downloading biggest launch in the studio’s history. Alex Thabet that product right away on your device. But on top of explains: “Jurassic World was the company’s biggest that, because of that distribution methodology, that hit. I think it was kind of a perfect storm. The movie has an influence as well on the way games have did extremely well in the box office. Our previous been built and monetised. Advertising has become a games based on the Jurassic World franchise had much greater portion of our revenue stream.” already done very well. We built on that success and know-how to create an even greater experience Regarding the ad business he further explains: and tie-in between the movie release and the game. “Nowadays we have a tendency to better monetise In its first month, it made over 25 million Canadian our games when we integrate micro-transactions, dollars in revenues and attracted millions of users rather than a one-off big amount that we charge our every month, connecting to the game every day.” users. We are currently working with four or five ad providers that we integrate in various parts of our In total Ludia’s games were downloaded 80 million games. These integrations have become pretty times in 2015. Following this success, the company smart in a way that minimises the intrusion of these has announced a self-funded growth plan of ads in the experience while still providing good 30 million Canadian dollars to be reinvested in returns on the advertisers’ investments.” the business in the next two years, as well as the creation of 100 new positions. 2015 was a particularly successful year for the company. In April, Ludia launched the successful “WE’RE GOING TO EXPAND Jurassic WorldTM: The Game which over the course of 2015 achieved a massive 24 million downloads OUR MONTREAL-BASED around the world. Available on iOS and Android STUDIO FROM ABOUT devices, Jurassic WorldTM: The Game has quickly 300 PEOPLE TODAY TO become a fans’ favourite, ranked number one on 400 HOPEFULLY BY THE Apple’s App Store in over 30 countries and one END OF THIS YEAR” of the top ten grossing apps in over 50 countries. Alex Thabet Next > Jurassic WorldTM: The Game has been Ludia’s biggest launch in the studio’s history 6 “Most of that investment will go on hiring new staff,” says Alex Thabet. “We’re going to expand our Montreal-based studio from about 300 people today to 400 hopefully by the end of this year, but right now it’s a two-year plan. The other part will be to acquire new properties and expand the portfolio of games that we’re going to be developing over the years.” These new licences will allow Ludia to take on more projects with a broader consumer appeal and reach a larger and more Another strong franchise of Ludia: Dragons. Photo taken during the recent visit of varied fan base in the casual to RTL Group’s Co-CEO Guillaume de Posch to Ludia’s studio mid-core games sector. In addition to creating new games, Ludia’s goal is “IT’S ALSO A VERY to maintain its successful ones and also grow the infrastructure of its studio. As a creative company, YOUNG ORGANISATION. Alex Thabet highlights how important it is to work THE AVERAGE AGE IS in an inspiring environment: “As we go forward, we PROBABLY AROUND 35” want to make sure that we keep the best possible Alex Thabet working environment for our staff and that’s been a priority for the business for years now.” now offered exclusively on the App Store for iPhone, iPad, and iPod devices. A card battle game genre, Asked about why people love working for Ludia, it was launched alongside the highly-anticipated Alex Thabet says: “We are still a relatively small film, Kung Fu Panda 3, released in North American company. We have just over 300 employees which cinemas on 29 January 2016. “Kung Fu Panda: makes us very accessible. We keep a certain Battle of Destiny marks Ludia’s entrance into the proximity between everyone. It’s also a very young card battle game genre, and there could not be any organisation. The average age is probably around better franchise than Kung Fu Panda to deliver this 35. It’s a very creative environment, very dynamic, exciting experience,” says Alex Thabet. “We have which overall makes it a very fun place to be part of.” a long history with DreamWorks Animation and are proud to be working with them once again on the Kung Fu Panda: Battle of Destiny is Ludia’s latest expansive and rich world of Kung Fu Panda, one of release. Based on the successful DreamWorks the most successful entertainment franchises in the Animation franchise Kung Fu Panda, the game is industry.” Kung Fu Panda: Battle of Destiny marks Ludia’s entrance into the card battle game genre Next > 7 ALEX THABET’S GAME PROFILE “I have a wide range of games that I like to play and obviously it’s part of my job to experience a lot of these games that are on the market. I personally try and make sure that we get involved in games and genres that we all like to play.” “I get a thrill from playing our classic game shows that we’ve created. You know, I grew up with things like The Price is Right and Family Feud®.