Hi, I've always been curious on how game developers gain the licenses to creat games based off animes and tv shows? Like, how do they find the license holders? Do they pay them upfront or promise them some sort of royalties? Stuff like that. Btw im not planning on doing any of this, I'm just curious as to how the process works. Thanks

The TV show usually has the owners name on it so finding them isn't very hard. There are also companies that specialise in licensing which can help. As for the deal that is subject to negotiation. It is often a payment up-front, sometimes part up-front and part in arrears and in some cases just a royalty.

>> Hi, I've always been curious on how game developers gain the licenses to creat games based off animes and tv shows?

For movies, it basically works like this:

• Movie studio decides they want a game based on the movie
  
• Movie studio works with their mega-corp to make game
  
• Mega-corp gets the movie studio people in touch with the video game producer people
  
• Producer contracts well known, experienced studio that they trust
  
• Studio spends several million dollars on development, and coordinates marketing and other elements with the rest of the mega-corp they are working with
  
• Studio faces major cruch time earlier and longer than other games
  
• Game is released. Yay!
  

The order is [Movie/TV production company] --> [video game producers] --> [game studio].

It isn't the other way around. Too often, people try the order "Game studio contacts movie production company and gets rights, then game studio contacts producers for deal." That isn't how the world works. When a multi-billion dollar Entertainment company is going to license out their most valuable IP rights, they are going to ensure it gives them more money in return.

Actually it isn't just the movie studios that make the decision. In most cases the studios licensing department decide to offer a film for licensing AND publishers that are on the look out for licenses decide to bid on them (so it is a mutual decision). Once the publisher has the license they then decide which studio (could be internal or a third party) they want to develop the game.

There have been some occasions where development studios have licensed films from a studio but they are generally older/cult movies.

Sil wrote:
>Do they pay them upfront or promise them some sort of royalties?

Both.

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Original post by frob >> Hi, I've always been curious on how game developers gain the licenses to creat games based off animes and tv shows? For movies, it basically works like this: Movie studio decides they want a game based on the movie Movie studio works with their mega-corp to make game Mega-corp gets the movie studio people in touch with the video game producer people Producer contracts well known, experienced studio that they trust Studio spends several million dollars on development, and coordinates marketing and other elements with the rest of the mega-corp they are working with Studio faces major cruch time earlier and longer than other games Game is released. Yay! The order is [Movie/TV production company] --> [video game producers] --> [game studio]. It isn't the other way around. Too often, people try the order "Game studio contacts movie production company and gets rights, then game studio contacts producers for deal." That isn't how the world works. When a multi-billion dollar Entertainment company is going to license out their most valuable IP rights, they are going to ensure it gives them more money in return.

Does the same also apply to TV/anime though? What about the Dragon Ball Z games? Seems like there are a ton of them. Is it really the owners of the Dragon Ball Z IP that are asking for all these games to be made? Or are there just a lot of game studios that are anxious to make them?

nim wrote:

>What about the Dragon Ball Z games? Seems like there are a ton of them. Is it really the owners of the Dragon Ball Z IP that are asking for all these games to be made? Or are there just a lot of game studios that are anxious to make them?

The IP owner doesn't "ask for" a game to be made based on their IP. A game publisher requests a license, or the IP owner may have an agent going around vigorously trying to sell a license.

In the case of Dragon Ball Z, games have been made by several different licensees. When a publisher has spent a lot on a valuable license, they want to get the most back out of it - and they do that by making multiple games based on the IP.

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Original post by nimrand Does the same also apply to TV/anime though?

Yes

Quote:

What about the Dragon Ball Z games? Seems like there are a ton of them. Is it really the owners of the Dragon Ball Z IP that are asking for all these games to be made? Or are there just a lot of game studios that are anxious to make them?

Sometimes one publisher might make a game based on a TV series and then another publisher will buy the rights to the comic and another the rights to a movie. This is what happened with Lord of the Rings. There are games based on the films and games based on the Books.