Leverage helps game companies to build lasting ideas and brands

Leverage is a team of four people in Sweden that helps the game and publishers build lasting ideas and brands.

The company has existed for seven years and has been working with more than 40 clients and projects. The list includes large companies such as Bandai Namco and Plaion In addition to a small “one person appears in the Arctic Circle,” says Christian vonsbeh, CEO and IP head at Leverage, in an interview with Gamesbeat.

Sometimes the team consults with a studio early, and sometimes it comes late.

“We met really arrogant teams and met really modest teams,” he said. “We were really around. And the big challenge is how to get to the studio? Where does the game stop and where does IP start? “

He brings out the example of IO Interactive, The Danger Studio, which has grown to 200 people and created a Hitman franchise. They had created a total of four different game series, but Hitman was the biggest.

“Hitman was 65% of the company’s value,” Fondobeh said. “You focus on gameplay and technology and this is super necessary. But on top of that there is a second business model. You build the love of your IP. With all the time people spend your game, they become attached to your characters and get used to this emotion and travel. So this is the IP part. “

And there is a third part about how you report this on the market.

“How do you position yourself to stand out and like the right people?” He said.

Origin

Previously, Fonnesbech was the head of the IP at Nordisk Games, who was owned by a large conglomerate. He works in games, entertainment, advertising and movie for decades and came to learn the value of IP. He works on 30 games through his career.

“I served my time in the trenches,” he said. “While in Nordisk we realized that there was no language for this conversation about IP and what is missing from the games.”

The company has a team of four and works with others if necessary.

“We just realized that no one knows how to build IP. They don’t even know how to understand what is the right level of leverage. Some people are lucky to have IP. What we do is to advise the problem we see is that most studios think so. They just want to make a game and finish it, and then they realize that what they really need is a durable product. “

For this you have to take the player on an emotional journey and give them a character they really love. You want a hero who is looking for revenge or trying to find peace. You have to design IP so that it is legally owned and protected, he said. This is what you usually ask when you read a book or watch a movie. Why am I interested in?

“We have learned that the big problem for the whole industry is that we are not making IP production. Because it’s just not a tradition. The game was enough. So all these companies have grown full focus on the content of the game, “he said. “We produce the game. But emotions and characters and positioning – ah, let’s talk about something else. So the typical game development process is three to four years of development, and then it is three months IP. “

This becomes three months of panic of the brand and panic of the IP, he said, at the end of the game, when it is almost late to change something.

“What we have been doing for seven years has been helping people develop a clear idea early. The sweet place is to do it early in the pre -production, but of course we often withdraw with an 80% finish or restart, “he said. “We are able to understand it. If you do this, you suddenly stand out on the market because you are not just a gameplay cycle. “

This is necessary because maybe 17,000 games a year go on Steam. To stand out, you don’t just need to look at the gameplay competitors. Your IP should be memorable.

“Today you also have to look at your emotional competitors. So there is no benefit to make a great hand combat game. If your IP is exactly the same as Batman, then you will not win. What does Batman do emotionally? It is in a big city full of corruption. He is an orphan. These are the central pillars of this IP. It is not enough to compete in the gameplay, you also have to compete with emotion. “

Buying

Not only one writer has to achieve this, Fonnesbech said. He says the whole leadership team must get involved. But this is very different from the company of the company, as some studios are guided by one creative force and others are managed by leadership groups. Some companies are collected from the beans and counters that do not like to work with each other.

An example of making it back is the League of Legends of Riot Games. He built the most successful game of a multiplayer online Battle Arena (MOBA) with many characters, but not much of the story. She now returned and created the back story by spending $ 250 million in two Arcane seasons at Netflix. And now she has built something that fans are emotionally attached to. And if you’ve ever been in the League of Legends championship match, you’ll see the emotion of the crowd. Sonic the Hedgehog from SEGA started in the same way, with a quick character with attitude and fast gameplay. Now, with the movies, Sonic’s emotional center goes into focus.

Fonnesbech believes that companies like Remedy, CD Projekt Red and Naughty Dog have done shiny jobs, creating their IP.

“If you want to build a valuable IP, the thing is that the thing that makes it a hit is not necessarily,” he said. “But this is something that makes you sustainable,” said Fontabeh. “I would recommend characters. You don’t have to have them, but it’s really good. Having a character is just a great anchor and a template. You can talk about an emotional journey. What is an emotional journey? Franchises and IPS are like the hidden memories you want to experience. “

He added: “If you are picking up a hitman or the most movie about Bourne or so on, you expect you to have this emotional journey. Lara Croft is still looking for her father in the ruins and, you know, Geralt from Rivia is still an external man who is trying to protect people who don’t really trust him. You are back for the same feeling. Then there is a unique world. You think of Hitman, you think of Lara Croft, you think of Superman. This is a world and a certain tone and a certain attitude you return to. So these things start to add. The more of them you have, the more we have the IP. “

When it works well

Some companies, such as Skybound, manufacturer of The Walking Dead, will test a new IP comic form. If she resonates, she puts the writer’s room to work on it and pulls out a different type of media. It tests the waters and doubles in the hits. Before walking dead, “good guys never died,” he said.

But people need to be careful about the “delusion of transmedia,” said Fondsbeh. “The idea that we will go out on six media at a time and this will be a bigger hit. That doesn’t work. You need to put everything you have to get out on a carrier and make it work. It’s so hard to make a good game or fiction or story. “

As for how things have worked in the last few years with 34,000 abbreviations in the industry, Fonnesbech said it had a slow effect on its own consultation. While other major companies were hit earlier, the crisis arrived for him in the spring of 2024, when there was a big game.

“Now things are flourishing and there is a feeling that there is a greater need for this way of thinking, because I think publishers and investors have become a little more preferable to investing in strange wonders,” he said. “If they put all this investment, they want to see something that will continue.”